Erik ten Hag hailed Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS for changing the mood around Manchester United – but revealed he is not being consulted over changes off the pitch.
United are pushing to make Dan Ashworth their inaugural sporting director, while Omar Berrada has been poached from Manchester City to take charge as CEO.
Ratcliffe and INEOS are taking charge of football operations at Old Trafford but any suggestion boardroom personnel will be green lit by Ten Hag were dismissed.
‘I’m here and I know what construction I am working in and I’m very happy,’ he said.
‘I don’t know anything about changes. I talk with the new sporting organisation but it’s not up to me. I am working and that is my focus at the moment, working with this team.’
Erik ten Hag says he is ‘very happy’ with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s changes at Old Trafford
Ineos billionaire Ratcliffe paid £1.3billion for a 25 per cent stake and control of the football side
Harry Maguire said this week how impressed players were with Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford during a recent Carrington visit and Ten Hag echoed the thoughts of his centre back.
‘Yeah, you feel that ambition, it brings the mood and the spirit,’ he said.
‘I think the players and the staff are very aligned with the ambitions of INEOS.
‘We want to win and to achieve the highest. We are very aligned and we have to execute to prove the ambitions.’
The pursuit of Ashworth makes for an interesting dynamic, although a sporting director is not alien to Ten Hag given he worked so successfully with Marc Overmars at Ajax.
‘I think it’s important you are on the same page, with the same philosophy about the profiles of the players you need,’ he said.
‘It’s important to have good communication so you get the right players.
‘It’s one of the most important factors to develop a good team that you have the right players, the right characters, so that means you have to do a lot of work. It’s a long process to get the right players in.’
Ten Hag said he doesn’t have any say in the personnel changes behind the scenes at United
Manchester United are expected to reach an agreement to poach Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth next week
Ashworth is close to Sir Dave Brailsford and is lured by the new project at Manchester United
He continued: ‘When things change [INEOS] will tell me. As I said in a club like Manchester United, you can’t do everything alone, it’s impossible. You need very good people around you.
‘A club like Man United always has to look for better, never be satisfied, good is not good enough, and always try to do better, every day better than before.’
