Erik ten Hag spent three years with Ajax and he was influenced by the philosophy of a legendary Dutchman during that time.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has revealed he had two pictures of Johan Cruyff on the wall of his Ajax office.
Cruyff, who won the Ballon d’Or three times during his playing career, is a Netherlands’ football legend and managed Ajax and Barcelona where his philosophy of ‘total football’ reinvented how the game was played. Ten Hag enjoyed great success at Ajax himself and has previously lauded the influence of Cruyff on his career, while footage of the United boss at just 13 years old on a TV show with the legendary Dutchman also recently went viral.
In an interview with UEFA.com this week, Ten Hag opened up about Cruyff’s influence and credited him for making football entertaining, a lesson he has taken into his own management and to United.
“I think a lot of Johan Cruyff. I admired him a lot from my office in Amsterdam, I had two pictures on the wall. One as a player, Johan Cruyff, and one as a coach, Johan Cruyff. He, in particular, was thinking outside the box,” Ten Hag said.
“He brought a lot to football. Football is always about winning, but he wa
nted to do it in a certain way. It has to be in an adventurous way, in an entertaining way. That was the way he wanted to express it, how he wanted the game to be played.
“We really have to credit him with that, we have to value that, because football is for the people to watch. That’s why I’m so happy to be a manager at the Theatre of Dreams.”
