According to reports, Eredivisie giants Ajax are planning to ‘approach’ Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag over returning to the Dutch club.
Ten Hag left Ajax ahead of the 2022/23 campaign to become Man Utd’s new manager. With the Dutch giants, the 54-year-old lifted the Eredivisie title on three occasions.

Ajax targeting Ten Hag

The Dutchman enjoyed a strong debut season at Old Trafford as they won the Carabao Cup and finished third in the Premier League last season but they have declined massively this term.
Man Utd suffered disappointing exits from the Champions League and Carabao Cup, while they face Liverpool in the next round of the FA Cup. In the Premier League, sixth-placed United are eight points adrift of Aston Villa in fourth.
Ajax have also struggled in recent years. They have had five interim or permanent managers in the dugout since the start of the 2022/23 campaign and they are currently fifth in the Eredivisie.
John van ‘t Schip has been Ajax’s interim boss since October 2023. He has won 12 of his 24 games in charge across all competitions and he is expected to be replaced in the summer.
READ MORE: Bizarre Mason Mount, Manchester United transfer ‘not for football reasons’ claim emerges
Related video: Why The Manchester United Takeover Isn’t What It Seems (FourFourTwo)

So First off, Sir Jim Radcliffe,

According to Football Insider, Ajax’s board are ‘keen to re-appoint Ten Hag’ and they are ‘planning to approach’ the Dutchman over a return.
Ajax CEO Alex Kroes is ‘eager’ to reunite with Ten Hag, who is coming under ‘growing pressure’ at Man Utd.

Ten Hag ‘favouring’ four players?

Regarding claims suggesting new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have ‘concerns’ about Sports Entertainment Group (the agency which represents Ten Hag), the report explains.

‘The pair have strong links to the agency Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), which was co-founded by Kroes, represents ten Hag and employs his son Nigel.
‘Controversially, multiple United signings under Ten Hag are represented by SEG, including Rasmus Hojlund, Andre Onana, Sofyan Amrabat and Antony.
‘There have been concerns from the new Man United regime, headed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, regarding SEG’s influence and how their clients have been favoured at the club.
‘SEG have also negotiated multiple player sales during Ten Hag’s tenure in Manchester.’

READ MORE: Simone Inzaghi now among leading Man United manager contenders when Ten Hag sacked
Man Utd qualifying for the Champions League would boost Ten Hag’s chances of keeping his job and Bruno Fernandes has insisted that they “want to try to get as close as possible” to those positions.


“It is actually,” Fernandes said when asked if all of United’s remaining matches are big games.
“Obviously we know that this season is not being (as) good as we want, so we want to improve as much as we can until the end of the season.
“Improve obviously position-wise because we want to try to get as close as possible to the Champions League spots.
“We know that we don’t depend only on ourselves, but we have to do our job like we did today and win our games.”

Ratcliffe warned Man Utd players ‘would eat alive’ ex-Chelsea manager targeted to replace Ten Hag

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been warned that Graham Potter would be “eaten alive” if he is chosen to replace Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag.
Potter was previously lauded for the work he did with Brighton but he is coming off a nightmare spell at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea.

Ex-Chelsea boss ‘out of his depth’

Appointed as Thomas Tuchel’s successor at the start of the 2022/23 season, Potter only lasted 31 games before Todd Boehly and Co. opted to sack him in April 2023.
This difficult job arguably came too soon for the Englishman. Last year, a report from The Athletic claimed ‘key senior players felt he was out of his depth’.
‘While relations with Potter were never hostile, key senior players were increasingly sceptical and felt he was out of his depth,’ the report said.
‘Some referred to him as “Harry” or “Hogwarts” behind his back, while some team selections caused confusion.’
Despite this, Potter is among the favourites to replace Ten Hag at Man Utd ahead of next season.
According to reliable journalist Ben Jacobs, Potter is among four contenders to replace Ten Hag if Man Utd opt to sack the Dutchman ahead of next season.
READ MORE: Man Utd cannot sleep on biggest manager appointment since 2013 in hardest summer
Related video: Why Manchester United Wants Dan Ashworth So Badly (Dailymotion)

Former United striker Dwight Yorke has now argued that the “boys would ear him alive” if Ratcliffe and INEOS went for the ex-Chelsea boss to replace Ten Hag.
“I don’t know what the new owners will come in and do, or how much of an influence they’ll have on what’s going on in the dugout or on the pitch. But, listen, you get judged on results, whether you’re a player or a manager,” Yorke told Ladbrokes Fanzone.
“I can’t see Xabi Alonso coming to us because of his Liverpool links. That’s never going to happen.
“Thomas Tuchel has had his chance at two big clubs but not really done it; saying that, he obviously won the Champions League with Chelsea and I did like him at the beginning, but things haven’t gone well for him since that.
“Who else is out there? They talk about Graham Potter, but the boys would eat him alive, I think, just based on what he did at Chelsea.”

READ MORE: Bizarre Mason Mount, Manchester United transfer ‘not for football reasons’ claim emerges

“I’d be incredibly surprised…”

Ex-Liverpool player Steve McManaman recently explained why he would be “incredibly surprised” if Man Utd targeted Potter.
“Why not pick a manager that has just won the league somewhere? Why not go for Xabi Alonso who’s at the top of the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen?” McManaman told Betfred.
“Why go for a manager that’s been out of work for eight months and had a failed experience at Chelsea? I’m not saying this is a failure on the behalf of Graham Potter.
“I thought Chelsea treated Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter terribly, but I would be very surprised if the latter was on the shortlist for Manchester United. I don’t believe Erik ten Hag will even leave Manchester United, but I’d be incredibly surprised if Graham was on the shortlist for one of the biggest jobs in world football.”

Dele Alli’s Premier League career is over – 2584 Express readers can’t be wrong

Mediawatch has been left in slack-jawed, gawping astonishment by the sheer brass balls on display at the Daily Express website. There’s a collection of words.
 
Express yourselves
Mediawatch has been knocking about at this game for a good couple of decades now. We’ve seen an awful lot of awful sh*t and there genuinely aren’t that many tabloid tricks that still make us go ‘OH, F*** OFF!’ out loud when we realise precisely how low they’ve sunk this time.
Today, the Daily Express made us go ‘OH, F*** OFF!’ out loud.
Obviously, when we saw this headline…

Dele Alli told Premier League career is over after Everton star’s injury nightmare

…we knew something untoward would be going on.
We know, for instance, that there’s absolutely zero chance that the person or persons unknown apparently ‘telling’ Dele are in any position to do so. If this message came from, say, Sean Dyche or the Everton medical team, or doctors who have treated him or anyone who has ever even met Dele Alli then it would be an actual news story and we wouldn’t have to find it on the website of the Daily Express, which remains forever true to its ‘Daily Mail without the SEO budget’ ethos.

So, we know it’s bullsh*t, obviously. We all know that. But when Mediawatch saw that headline the instinctive reaction was to start our latest little game of ‘Agbonlahor or O’Hara?’ where we try and guess which particular radio gobsh*te has had an opinion for money this time.
We would of course have been sickened and appalled, but we were braced for it. But then we read the story and started to worry.

Dele Alli has been told that his Premier League career could be over, following a nightmare spell at Everton.

No alarms here. Just a standard intro for these stories, no huge surprise that we still don’t know whether it was Gabby or Jamie or Simon Jordan or Jason Cundy or some other prick mouthing off at this stage. Rarely would that kind of story-killing info be given away in the intro.

The ex-Tottenham Hotspur man had been hoping to rebuild his career at Goodison Park, but a combination of injuries and poor form have plagued his spell under Sean Dyche at Everton.
It’s been a rough few months for Dele. The midfielder penned a two-and-a-half year deal at Everton during the 2022 January transfer window, as part of a deal that would rise to £40million if all clauses are met.

Now, though. Now we’re starting to worry. That’s a couple of lengthy and clunky paragraphs’ worth of filler with still nary a clue about who’s said Dele’s career might be over. We’re now starting to think it’s actually someone even more embarrassing than a talkSPORT noisemaker. But who?

Heading up to Merseyside full of optimism, the move hasn’t worked out as Everton or Dele would’ve hoped, and now there are suggestions his Premier League career could be over altogether.

But who is suggesting these suggestions? We need to know? Why haven’t you told us yet?

That’s according to the majority of Express Sport readers, who were asked whether Dele would be able to rekindle a career in England’s top flight. Over 3,800 people voted in the poll held on our website, with 68 per cent of voters believing the Englishman won’t return as a regular Premier League player.

And that’s why. The utter brass-balled nerve of it. Is this where we are now? Pretending an Express Sport poll is actual news? We could at this point get into the fact that ‘Is Dele Alli’s Premier League career over’ isn’t apparently even the question 68 per cent of voters are answering in the affirmative – because the word ‘regular’ is quite an important but buried detail – but frankly we can’t be bothered.


Well done. You got us. You’ve scraped the barrel so hard that even we didn’t see that particular bottom coming. Although fair play, we suppose, for admitting that 2584 people constitutes ‘the majority of Express Sport readers’.
 
Poll tax
Just so we’re all ready next time and won’t get caught out again, here’s a list of current active Express Sport polls and the possible headlines for the news stories they generate based on the latest results:

Who has the easier (sic) Premier League run-in?

…Liverpool handed major Premier League title boost as rivals Arsenal and Man City told to expect disappointment

How many players do Man Utd need to sign to become title contenders?

…Man United told they must sign at least SEVEN players to become title contenders

Was Kevin De Bruyne out of order with his reaction to being subbed against Liverpool?

…Kevin De Bruyne told reaction to Liverpool substitution was ‘out of order’

Is Mark Clattenburg right after claiming that VAR is letting Prem refs down?

…VAR is letting Prem refs down, officials told

Has Nicolas Jackson been a successful signing for Chelsea?

…Nicolas Jackson told he has FLOPPED at Chelsea

Would Xabi Alonso win more trophies than Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool?

…Xabi Alonso told he will never match Klopp’s Liverpool achievements
It’s like a bingo card, isn’t it? Let’s see how many we can tick off in the days and weeks ahead.
 
The Truth
We’re sure you’ve all seen the brouhaha over what Mikel Arteta may or may not have said to Sergio Conceicao after the Arsenal-Porto game last night.

Conceicao says Arteta insulted his family, Arsenal say he didn’t, and that’s about as much as we have to go on. One man’s word against another. We could note that Conceicao is a spiky, frequently offended kind of chap with form, and we might further suggest we have a decent inkling about whose version of events we’re more inclined to believe.
But we absolutely don’t know, and nor importantly do Football.London.
Both Conceicao’s initial allegation and Arsenal’s rebuttal are newsworthy lines, but neither side’s assertions justify this headline unless you’ve got something new, which they don’t.

The truth over Sergio Conceicao comments as Mikel Arteta celebrates Arsenal victory

‘The truth’ – always dangerous words to see in any headline.
 
On-brand
Arsenal’s penalty shoot-out victory over Porto also produced an unimprovable collection of on-brand headlines

RAYA LIGHT

The Sun get it absolutely right.

RAYA OF LIGHT

The Daily Mirror almost get it right, but then f*** it up.

Gunners survive nail-biting shootout to bury ghosts of past Champions League failures, with David Raya the hero after Leandro Trossard’s first-half leveller

The Daily Mail attempt to cram in the entire story.

Guardiola stung as unsung Man City hero’s exit accelerates after new contract talks fail

A key Manchester City player Pep Guardiola adores is thundering towards a summer exit after a fresh attempt to resolve a contract dispute failed, according to a source.
The likes of Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland rightfully receive universal acclaim for their exceptional displays week after week at Man City. However, in such a star-studded squad there are a handful of players who go under the radar.

Nathan Ake has quietly developed into one of the best centre-halves in the league. Fellow defender Manuel Akanji has already proven to be a mind-boggling bargain after costing just £15m to sign from Borussia Dortmund.
Another who rarely puts a foot wrong for the treble winners is back-up goalkeeper, Stefan Ortega.
Despite being firmly behind Ederson in the pecking order, Ortega has made 24 appearances for Man City since arriving at the beginning of last season.
The German, 31, has kept clean sheets in half of those appearances and his solid displays in the cup competitions in particular have been vital for City’s attempts to lift multiple trophies each year.
READ MORE: The 10 most expensive Manchester City transfers of all time: Gvardiol replaces Rodri in the top two
What’s more, Ortega is now due to get the nod over the next three-four weeks after Ederson sustained a muscle injury in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
Related video: Guardiola says Man City held off 'tsunami' to earn draw at Liverpool (Metro)

I don't know your opinion but I hope so.

That means Ortega will start in the crucial top-of-the-table clash with Arsenal on March 31. His first order of business will be keeping Alexander Isak and co quiet when City host Newcastle in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.
Ortega’s importance to City has heightened in recent times. Indeed, fellow back-up stoppers James Trafford (Burnley) and Zack Steffen (Colorado Rapids) have both left the club outright since last summer.
However, according to Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Ortega is a genuine contender to leave the club this summer, much to Guardiola’s dismay.

Ortega hurtling towards Man City exit

Plettenberg revealed last week that Man City have thus far failed in their attempts to tie Ortega down to a new contract.
His current deal expires in the summer of 2025 and City could be forced into a reluctant sale this summer if a new deal goes unsigned.
Adding to City’s plight is the fact Ortega wishes to become a regular starter once again. Ortega was the No 1 for five successive years at former club Arminia Bielefeld, though the presence of Ederson – who is younger than Ortega – means he must leave to become a starter.

Furthermore, Plettenberg claimed a salary dispute is another factor in play. The reporter didn’t explicitly state it, but the inference is Ortega wants a pay rise.
Plettenberg noted Guardiola is a huge admirer of his back-up stopper and would be loathe to lose such a dependable asset.

Fresh extension talks fail

However, according to a fresh update from Plettenberg, a summer exit is very much on the cards.
Taking to X, the reporter stated further discussions over a new deal have taken place. Unfortunately for City and Guardiola, a breakthrough wasn’t made.
Of course, there’s still plenty of time between now and the summer window for talks to reignite.
But as it stands, and if both parties can’t find common ground, Ortega would be in line to leave Man City this summer.
DON’T MISS: Man City superstar Guardiola is sick of confirms he wants out, as transfer to Euro giant gathers pace

Benni McCarthy set to make Man Utd decision that won't go down well with Marcus Rashford

Manchester United coach Benni McCarthy admits he's undecided on his future and is looking to become a manager.
The South African was a surprise recruit by Erik ten Hag, who added the Champions League winner to his coaching team when he joined almost two years ago. McCarthy had minimal experience, but has continued to add to his knowledge bank and is looking to go out solo.


United are in the midst of mass changes and, following a disappointing season thus far, the club are considering a change of manager. It means Ten Hag could be out of a job and McCarthy is eyeing his next move - which is likely be away from Manchester.
He told YOU Magazine : “With the knowledge I’ve gained and everything I’ve contributed to the team – I want to take that and then eventually become a manager. Because once you’ve sat in the hot seat at a club and you’ve experienced the adrenaline of decision-making and leading, you want to experience that again one day.”
McCarthy has been working in the background and has aided their forward stars. The ex-Porto star enjoyed a prolific spell as a player, excelling in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in the past. Marcus Rashford is among those to prosper as a result of the South African.
Related video: Why The Glazers Have Set Man United Up To Fail (Dailymotion)

The Daily Mail previously reported that the 45-year-old had worked on the art of goalscoring, how to time runs, when to attack space and when to stand still, and the types of finishes that certain situations require with Rashford throughout the course of a campaign that saw the forward produce career best numbers.
Rashford and the South African paid particular attention to his heading and how to attack crosses - later reaping the rewards. The Englishman said: "He's definitely helped me a lot. To have attack-minded coaches is good for us. He's always there speaking to us about these things."
The Man Utd coach earned praise from the club's forwards last term - Marcus Rashford among them
© Getty Images
Rashford this term though has struggled to replicate that form that saw him break club records. The United star, who scored 30 times last season, is yet to hit double figures under Ten Hag. He's also copped criticism for off field antics, which recently saw him report late for training after night out in Belfast.

The player recently spoke out and told the Players' Tribune : "We will be back where we belong. We just have to keep working, and that starts with me. If you back me, good. If you doubt me, even better."
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