Man Utd are putting all their eggs in Ten Hag’s Dutch picnic basket with Mount and Onana

Mason Mount is the first English player signed by Manchester United from an English club for a fee since the young, British and buzzy summer of 2019 when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer attempted to recreate the Class of 92 with a Welsh winger and a defensive-minded English right-back before panicking as July turned to August, eventually spending a world-record fee on a youngish British centre-half.

Yet the pursuit of Mount is not a return to that ultimately flawed policy but a continuation of what Erik ten Hag has been building since the minute he walked through the door. For it’s not Mount being just 24, English, a Champions League winner and Premier League-moulded that has impressed Ten Hag, but the loan spell he enjoyed at Vitesse Arnhem as an 18-year-old.

‘Mount scored his first senior goal against Ten Hag’s Utrecht in October 2017, coming off the bench with Vitesse trailing 1-0 to equalise with his first touch,’ say The Athletic, who detail that the Dutchman tracked Mount’s performances throughout that season. There were reports in the summer of 2018 that Ajax were interested in Mount, but of course he was lured to Derby County by Frank Lampard instead.

Five years later, Ten Hag has finally got his man.

Mount becomes the sixth permanent signing of Ten Hag’s reign and the fifth to have played in Eredivisie. The exception is Casemiro, who only arrived after a summer of flirtation with Ajax alumnus Frenkie de Jong that ended in nothing but blue balls. And if you are going to make an exception to a Dutch rule, make it for a multiple Champions League winner.

Otherwise, Antony and Lisandro Martinez arrived from Ajax, Tyrell Malacia from Feyenoord and Christian Eriksen from Brentford after a spell training with his former club Ajax the winter before.

And after Mount comes goalkeeper Andre Onana, who spent five years with Ten Hag at Ajax. It seems likely that all the talk of Jordan Pickford, of Diogo Costa, of David Raya, was only ever going to lead back to Inter Milan and the signing of a fourth former Ajax player. And if not Onana then Justin Bijlow or the next man on the eligible goalkeepers list who is Dutch or Dutch-adjacent.

Striker target Rasmus Højlund might be the second exception, though we would not be remotely surprised if that fell through to leave a late pursuit for Sebastien Haller; no forward has scored more goals for Ten Hag. Nobody will be shocked to discover that reported midfield target Sofyan Amrabat worked with Ten Hag at Utrecht.

That’s not to say that almost exclusively signing players with Dutch connections is A Bad Thing. Nobody would argue that Eriksen has not been a fine addition, while Martinez has transformed the Manchester United defence. Malacia is still raw and Antony a divisive character who is almost certainly not worth the exorbitant fee, but the balance has clearly tipped towards following the same policy this season.

Which is fine for as long as Ten Hag is in charge of Manchester United. This policy relies on this being a long-term appointment, on Ten Hag being in charge for the next five or six years, so closely is he aligned with transfer policy. While Mauricio Pochettino and Mikel Arteta are head coaches, Ten Hag is cosy in the manager gang with Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.

But neither Guardiola nor Klopp have limited their signings to certain clubs or leagues, though Klopp does have a tendency to buy players he has seen at close quarters. It’s rare that a Premier League manager would be given carte blanche to fill the squad with players that are so nakedly his signings; it’s either a sign of the trust they hold in Ten Hag or a sign that there is a void where other input should be.

“I don’t want to be a ruler, I will work together, but having a say in transfers is a condition for me,” said Ten Hag last year after he was confirmed as Manchester United manager. It seems that he wasn’t just given a ‘say’ but vrij spel.