Ten Hag Reveals Details of Top-Level Talks: After Four Hours of Intense Discussion, Everyone Agreed I Was the Best Option for Manchester United

Recently, in an interview with Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag revealed the content of his decisive talks with the club’s top brass that determined his future. Ten Hag stated that after a four-hour discussion, the United executives confirmed their trust in him and decided to continue their cooperation.

Following Manchester United’s victory over Manchester City at Wembley to win the FA Cup, Ten Hag, like everyone else, was unsure whether he would remain as the team’s manager for the next season when he flew to Ibiza for the talks. However, speaking to the Dutch media, Ten Hag emphasized that he did not feel panicked, even during moments when communication with INEOS was interrupted.

Ten Hag said bluntly, “Communication with INEOS was indeed interrupted, but I decided to continue my vacation with my family and let things unfold naturally. There was nothing I could do about it anyway. Why wasn’t I panicking? Because this was a decision outside of my control, so all I could do was wait. At that moment, you only think of two scenarios: continue or leave, that’s how simple it is, so I viewed it in a sufficiently calm manner.”

Previously, British media reported that the talks between the Manchester United executives and Ten Hag lasted four hours, which Ten Hag confirmed himself. He said, “The management didn’t say ‘we still want to continue,’ but rather ‘we are going to continue.’ Their rationale was: having considered the current situation and made comparisons, they believed the team already had the best coach. So I said, ‘Then we must discuss some concrete matters, about how we communicate and continue working together.’ We had a good, honest, yet also confrontational conversation, as top-level talks should be.”

Ten Hag also mentioned that he was very straightforward in the exchange, leaving little room for ambiguity, and clearly expressed this to INEOS during the meeting: “I told them: If you think my approach is wrong, then we will have to part ways.”