Ten Hag ‘pressed’ for signings of Liverpool and Arsenal stars before Man Utd pair joined for £117m

Erik ten Hag pushed for Manchester United to sign stars who are currently thriving at Liverpool and Arsenal before landing his secondary options, and the unfortunate reason behind the first move crumbling has been revealed.

Ten Hag was relieved of his duties on Monday, with Man Utd wasting no time in lining up Ruben Amorim as his replacement. A full agreement with the Sporting CP manager has been struck and United will trigger his €10m release clause. Ruud van Nistelrooy has taken temporary charge in the meantime and will lead the team out against Leicester in the League Cup on Wednesday night.

A comprehensive update from The Athletic has shed new light on precisely what went wrong for Ten Hag at Old Trafford. One of the many factors relates to the transfer market.

It’s claimed that while Ten Hag was allowed to spend heavily, the Dutchman was all too often deprived of his primary targets.

Indeed, the report revealed that prior to signing Mason Mount from Chelsea for £60m (£55m plus £5m in add-ons), Ten Hag ‘pressed’ for the arrival of Ryan Gravenberch.

The midfielder was on Bayern Munich’s books at the time and despite featuring sparingly under Thomas Tuchel, Man Utd and Ten Hag were told Gravenberch was not for sale.

As such, Man Utd shifted their focus to Mount, though in the final stages of the 2023 summer window, Bayern softened their stance. Man Utd no longer has the funds available to reignite their pursuit having already signed Mount and Liverpool duly pounced.

Gravenberch endured a slow start to life at Anfield, though has been among the Premier League’s best midfielders since Arne Slot took charge. Mount, meanwhile, is yet to get out of second gear since joining Man Utd, with his spell heavily disrupted by injuries so far.

The Athletic also revealed Ten Hag sought to sign versatile defender Jurrien Timber BEFORE settling for Lisandro Martinez two windows later.

Ten Hag ‘advocated’ for Timber’s arrival in his first window in charge in the summer of 2022. For whatever reason, Timber remained with Ajax for one more season before joining Arsenal in 2023.

Martinez cannot be classified as a poor signing for Man Utd, though few would argue he’s justified his £57m (including add-ons) price tag.

Martinez, Mount not Ten Hag’s only back-up options

Another example of Ten Hag failing to land his preferred target is Frenkie de Jong. The classy Dutch midfielder emerged as Ten Hag’s primary transfer target in his first window at the helm, though De Jong refused to leave Barcelona.

Man Utd ultimately moved on to option No 2 – Adrien Rabiot – before the Frenchman’s mother priced her son out of a move through wage demands Man Utd deemed excessive. Veronique Rabiot doubles up as Adrien’s agent.

That led to Man Utd settling for option three – Casemiro. The Brazilian veteran enjoyed a fantastic first season at Old Trafford, helping United to qualify for the Champions League. Casemiro also scored in the League Cup final victory over Newcastle.

However, Casemiro has since shown signs of drastic decline and dropping £70m on an ageing superstar no longer looks justified in any way, shape or form.

Ten Hag sack fallout

In other news, former United treble winner, Dwight Yorke, has blamed the club’s current forwards for Ten Hag’s dismissal.

“At the end of the day, Manchester United haven’t been good enough in front of goal this season,” Yorke said in a recent interview. “It’s what would have cost Erik ten Hag his job – we’ve been missing far too many chances.

“For a club that is built on the tradition of attacking, to have scored eight goals in nine games is frankly nowhere near good enough. We’ve got the players in the squad to score goals. The quality is there, I think it needs to be untapped.

“Ultimately, that profligacy in front of goal has cost us too many results this season and it’s also cost the previous manager his job.”

Elsewhere, The Daily Star claimed Ten Hag feels let down by three Man Utd stars who massively underperformed in recent times. The trio named were Casemiro, Antony and Marcus Rashford.

HAVE YOU SEEN: Ranking every player Erik ten Hag signed for Man Utd from WORST to BEST

Finally, TEAMtalk brought news on Tuesday of the Man Utd squad’s stance on Ten Hag’s dismissal as well as incoming boss Ruben Amorim.

We’ve been informed United’s players have reacted extremely positively to the news. Many had good relations with Ten Hag and were sad to see him go, but there was agreement across the board that it was the correct call.

We understand that the squad view Amorim as a modern appointment with forward planning and one that will bring the club in line with some of its biggest rivals.

READ MORE: Erik ten Hag sack: The five lowest points of Dutchman’s troubled tenure at Man Utd

How Ten Hag compared to Amorim