Dutch journalist Valentijn Driessen has claimed that Ajax will wait for Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag if they follow the line of their suspended CEO Alex Kroes.
Ten Hag’s future at Manchester United is under threat with the team lurching between bad results and performances this season.
There are suggestions that the new football management will look to bring in someone new at the end of the season to give themselves a fresh start.
The Dutchman has remained a popular figure at Ajax where he won multiple league titles and scripted a run to the Champions League semi-finals.
Driessen, the chief football reporter of Dutch daily De Telegraaf, claimed that Kroes, who was suspended following allegations of insider trading, often said in private that he wanted to wait for Ten Hag with the club looking for a new manager.
He indicated that the suspended Ajax CEO knew that Ten Hag would not say no to a return to Ajax.
“If Ajax follows Kroes’ line, then Ajax will wait for Ten Hag”, Driessen said on Vandaag Inside.
“Would Kroes know whether Ten Hag would want to return to Ajax after Manchester United? Off the record, he has said a number of times that he would like to wait for Ten Hag.
“You don’t say that if you know he will say no anyway.”
He insisted that if the current Ajax management continue to work along the lines of Kroes, as they have claimed, then they will wait for Ten Hag.
However, Driessen is unsure if the Dutchman would want to return if the suspended CEO does not get reinstated.
“[Ajax’s director of football] Marijn Beuker, [technical director] Kelvin de Lang and [chairman of the supervisory board] Michael Van Praag have said out loud that they will continue to work along the lines of Kroes.
“But perhaps the question for Ten Hag is whether he will step in if Kroes does not remain CEO.”
