Former assistant Rene Meulensteen has encouraged prospective new manager Erik ten Hag to appoint someone who ‘understands the culture of the club’ to his coaching staff.
The Red Devils endured a miserable night against Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday, losing 4-0 in a massive blow to their top-four aspirations, but they remain hopeful of announcing Ten Hag’s appointment before the end of the month.
Both the Dutchman and the club are believed to be keen to include someone in his backroom team who has been at Old Trafford before and knows the demands of the Premier League inside out.
The likes of Robin van Persie, Jaap Stam, Steve McClaren and Meulensteen himself have all been linked with the role, and Sir Alex Ferguson’s old assistant believes such an appointment could be crucial to ensuring Ten Hag makes a quick start to life in Manchester.
Asked if the Ajax boss needs someone on his staff with experience of both the Premier League and United, Meulensteen told Sky Sports: ‘Well it’s important for him that he has certain people that he can trust who understand the culture of the club, the identity of the club, where the club has been, where it is now and how it can go back to where it should be.
‘And he needs to have those people that give him the right information so he can make the right decisions, in terms of recruitment, playing staff, his own staff, anything really.
‘That information is important because if he has to discover it all himself it will definitely slow down the process.’
Meulensteen, who was first-team coach at United under Sir Alex for six years, knows Ten Hag relatively well and believes the 52-year-old will have carried out his own due diligence before committing to the club.
He continued: ‘In terms of his philosophy, the way that he wants to play, the work that he’s done at Ajax, I can see it being an appointment that could work for Manchester United.
‘I would imagine that Erik himself, the way that I know him, would have done a lot of work, a lot of due diligence stuff, to see where Man United is and it’s not a secret that he knows exactly what Manchester United are at the moment and he also knows what sort of work he has ahead of him.
‘It’s a massive job. It would have been a massive job for anybody and it will be a massive job for Erik as well.’
On suggestions Ten Hag wants full control of transfers, Meulensteen added: ‘It is rumours, speculation, but I do think a manager has to have a big say.
‘But there always has to be incorporation with other members of the club, whether it’s the director of football or the technical director or whoever it is.
‘You work together, you work together on the project. Jurgen Klopp will do exactly the same at Liverpool and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. They’ll work together with the team who are identifying those talents and get the recruitment right. It has to be a partnership between the technical members of the club.’
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