Manchester United have visibly improved under the astute stewardship of Erik ten Hag and the Dutch manager is showing every day why the club canceled an entire season to wait for him to spearhead the rebuild.
Most of United’s players are on an upward trajectory and while Ten Hag will largely take the plaudits, his assistant Mitchell van der Gaag is also partly responsible for the recent rebound in the team’s fortunes.
The Athletic’s Dan Sheldon and Laurie Whitwell report that Van der Gaag and Ten Hag enjoy an extremely close relationship with the two working in unison on almost every aspect of training at Old Trafford alongside Steve McClaren.
The pair’s association is so strong that when Van de Gaag was presented with the option of joining Ten Hag at United, he immediately packed his bags and joined him at the expense of a more prominent and lucrative position at Ajax.
Ajax were reportedly ready to offer the assistant coach the manager’s job to convince him to go to England.
Sheldon and Whitwell relay: “When Ten Hag was approached by United and he subsequently asked Van der Gaag if he wanted to join him at Old Trafford, people close to the former Belenenses manager said it was an easy decision for him.”
“Such is the relationship between the pair, Ten Hag knows that his assistant will spend every working hour developing equipment and watching videos.”
“A source joked that the only film Van der Gaag would watch is United training sessions or the club’s final match.”
According to The Athletic, Ten Hag trusts Van der Gaag 100% because he knows his fellow Dutchman will not try to usurp him or unseat him from his role as United manager.
One source compared van der Gaag’s loyalty to that of a clerk working in a store: he can be trusted to the extent that he won’t have to worry about him running away with the business’s money.
On what exactly the 51-year-old does on a day-to-day basis at United, Sheldon and Whitwell point out that he is the link between Ten Hag and the biggest coaching team, describing him as the person tasked with ensuring that the “nuts “. and bolts” of the operation work through the supervision of daily training sessions and the development of training programs.
Ten Hag is said to value both Van der Gaag and McClaren in equal measure: there is no range between the two. Hopefully, he can continue to be an integral part of Ten Hag’s rebuilding efforts.
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