Erik ten Hag

Seeing a number of fans of the Premier League big boys speculating on how long their manager is going to last or is going to get given, I'm a bit surprised that Ajax's Erik ten Hag barely seems to be mentioned when considering potential replacements.

Not even Robb, everyone's favorite hipster, mentioned him in his recent list of potential candidates for the United gig, and it was a pretty remarkable list: Allegri, Rodgers, Pochettino, Tuchel, Nagelsmann, Blanc, Wenger, Howe (I suspect that at least a couple of those thrown in for laughs or to draw a few insults upon himself).

Hell, forget Robb, I barely even see him mentioned as a potential replacement for Valverde, who most Barcelona fans seem completely fed up with, and for whom he would seem to be an almost perfect fit.

The question is, why? I had a quick review of his CV, and he's always achieved good results with the sides he's managed, and was also in charge of Bayern's second side for a couple of years when Pep was at the helm.

I'd have thought he'd be more in the frame on last season alone, where as well as their famous Champions League run, he broke Ajax's second longest barren spell in the Eredivisie since the mid-1960s, delivering their first league title in five years.

Then, despite the club then proceeding to bank a very healthy 140M euro profit in the transfer market, selling -amongst others- two of their most outstanding young performers, EtH got them up to speed again quickly because they were required to play a qualifying round to get back into the CL. They remain unbeaten in all competitions and have already stolen a march on both Chelsea, Lille and Valencia in their CL group.

And the above only concerns the actual results, without stopping to consider that they've achieved what they have playing some beautifully attractive and fearless football that I reckon United, Spurs or Arsenal fans would give an arm and a leg to be treated to at the moment.

Just as a signing off remark, I'd add that I don't even think that their late collapse in the CL could be pegged on him. He may have paid a bit for not being more tactically conservative, but in the end of the day it was really individual mistakes and inexperience -together with a freakishly inspired performance from Lucas Moura- that made them miss out by the skin of their teeth on a CL final where they would no doubt have taken the game to Liverpool.

So ... why do you lot think he's not been mentioned more for one of these hot seat, and would you be willing to take a minor gamble on a manager who seems capable of getting teams playing high calibre football rather than appointing what may mistakenly be considered to be a 'safe yet boring pair of hands' like Allegri?