Why Ten Hag’s ‘bizarre’ Manchester United transfer message actually makes perfect sense

Arsenal’s season is almost over, but the focus is on what Erik ten Hag has said about transfers and the Premier League title. It’s apparently ‘bizarre’.

Trace camp
Arsenal have won one of their last seven games and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool on Sunday, restricting their trophy hopes this season to the Premier League and Champions League. The two tinpot pieces of silverware, basically.

There are clearly problems for Mikel Arteta to solve in north London – a Robert Lewandowski ‘plan B’ might help – but there is a danger of going overboard in criticism with so much of the campaign remaining.

Sod that, says Dave Kidd of The Sun, a whole two paragraphs into his match report from the Emirates:

‘Arsenal’s season is in danger of sinking without trace…’

They are fourth, five points off the Premier League leaders, and are heavy favourites to beat a similarly out-of-sorts Porto in the Champions League knockout stages. Let’s just chill out for a second.

Title fight
Not that The Sun will care, but it says everything when their huge website EXCLUSIVE and newspaper back-page story are the only places one can find Erik ten Hag’s massive Premier League title claim.

‘Ten Hag not feeling pressure after Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Man Utd arrival.. and doesn’t rule out WINNING Premier League,’ screams the headline in the former, with that line buried deep in Martin Blackburn’s copy for the latter thus:

‘Ten Hag is refusing to write United out of the title race even though they are 14 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.’

Well for starters, a Manchester United manager specifically ruling Manchester United out of the Premier League title race in early January when they winning the competition remains a mathematical possibility would lead to them getting slaughtered in the media, so yeah.

But what Ten Hag actually said was that “we have now two leagues to play for, the Premier League and the FA Cup. We still have a lot to play for”. And while that can indeed be interpreted incredibly literally as a declaration that Manchester United are still competing for the title, it feels a bit silly when he was far more likely just saying that “we still have a lot to play for” in the Premier League, such as European qualification.

The bloke was basically just saying that Manchester United are still in two competitions. The Sun know that too, or else the ‘title’ claim would be given more prominence. And literally any other outlet would have reported on it.

Warning has broken
The MailOnline instead focus on another choice of reading of Ten Hag’s actual words, this time on Manchester United’s transfer policy.

‘Erik ten Hag hands a bizarre warning to Man United’s transfer targets… and it could put off players rather than encourage them!’

What’s he gone and said now? Has he told any prospective players that he can aid their development in the same way he has Antony’s? That would put most people off.

Alas, not quite. Ten Hag actually responded to a leading question about whether players should think twice before joining Manchester United by saying: “That is always on those players and how much confidence you have in your capabilities. But I can tell you one thing – the Premier League is tough. Man United, that is tough to play there because it’s more easy to play in almost any other team than Man United because the pressure is that high always.”

And that ‘could put off players rather than encourage them!’, but that is precisely Ten Hag’s point: he wants any signings to be clear on the pressures and challenges they would face by joining such a heavily scrutinised club. The Dutchman has made myriad mistakes this season but this supposedly ‘bizarre’ quote cannot be listed among them.

As Ten Hag continued: “You have to deal with that. But if you have that confidence in yourself, this is the best challenge and this is definitely the best club you want to be at as a player. It depends on player to player, and it depends especially on the character of the player, their personality.”

But then ‘Erik ten Hag tells ambitious transfer targets that Manchester United “is definitely the best club you want to be at as a player”‘ is not quite as negative a headline, even if it is more representative of his obvious point.

Admission impossible
The Sun website could have at least consulted a thesaurus before parroting the same line in their copy-paste job: ‘Erik ten Hag fires bizarre warning to Man Utd transfer targets and risks putting them off Old Trafford move’.

Big fan of ‘but his targets could be tempted to swerve the Theatre of Dreams after he admitted it’s tough going with the struggling Premier League giants’ as a sentence, though. As if a) Ten Hag had to be coerced into saying that, and b) people might be surprised that Manchester United, much like any elite club, is not the sort of environment everyone can thrive in.

Hat trick
There is some unequivocally good news for Manchester United in this difficult season; the club’s own website offers it up:

‘UNITED IN THE HAT FOR FA CUP FOURTH-ROUND DRAW’

They’re technically not wrong. But fair play for writing ‘United and Wigan are two of the 41 clubs that will be involved in the draw, by virtue of playing after it is conducted, in the final match of this season’s third round,’ with a presumably straight face.

Class act
‘Jude Bellingham branded ‘pure class’ after incredible gesture to ballboy’ – The Sun website

Does giving someone a blanket in the winter really qualify as an ‘incredible gesture’ now?

This is the Hend
‘Jordan Henderson will face £7MILLION in taxes if he returns to the Premier League from Saudi Arabia… with the ex-Liverpool man DESPERATE for a return to England after struggling to settle in £700,000-per-week stint at Al-Ettifaq’ – MailOnline.

‘Jordan Henderson braced for £3m bill from taxman if he quits Saudi Arabia’ – Daily Telegraph.

Thankfully, as we know with Henderson, “money has never been a motivation” so that £4m difference won’t actually matter. But it would be good to get some clarity.

READ MORE: Firmino, ‘desperate’ Henderson followed back to Europe by Liverpool turncoats in Saudi renegade XI