Ruud van Nistelrooy reveals how Erik ten Hag REALLY feels about Man United sacking – as interim boss shares details of conversations after Dutchman was axed
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Erik ten Hag is ‘hurt’ after his dismissal from Manchester United, his assistant Ruud van Nistelrooy has admitted.
Ten Hag was fired by United on Monday after two and a half years in charge and immediately took a private jet to the Netherlands. The 54-year-old is yet to speak about the club’s decision.
Van Nistelrooy stepped in as caretaker manager and ensured a 5-2 win over Leicester City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening. He was on the training field on Monday morning when Ten Hag was told by CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth that his time was up.
“Yes, I saw him on Monday and spoke to him before the match,” said Van Nistelrooy. ‘He was disappointed and moved because he really cared about the club. During the first conversations we had when I came back to the club, I felt that he cared and loved the club and that he wanted to take the club forward.
Erik ten Hag is ‘hurt’ after being sacked by Man United, Ruud van Nistelrooy has revealed
Van Nistelrooy took over as interim manager of United in the 5-2 Carabao Cup last-16 win over Leicester
“That’s why he’s hurt that he had to leave, but also proud of his performance here by winning the two cups.”
Van Nistelrooy also confirmed he is happy to be acting boss only as the club looks to finalize the appointment of Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim.
‘It will be a short interim job, that has been communicated very clearly and I am happy with that. “I felt I was being called upon to help the club in this situation,” he said.
‘It was very disappointing that Erik had to leave, but then you have to change your mentality to win. There was a match that was watched by 75,000 fans and millions of people at home.”
Ten Hag has returned to his hometown in the Netherlands to cope with a tumultuous time, MailOnline exclusively reveals.
After being told his tenure at United was over, Ten Hag immediately raced to Manchester Airport, where a private Cessna Citation jet was waiting to take him back to the Netherlands.
Within hours of being discharged, he had traveled some 500 miles back to the comfort of his other home in a small Dutch town where his extended family lives.
And last night the 54-year-old was comforted by his parents Hennie and Joke who visited their son at his modern, three-storey £1 million home near the center of Oldenzaal.
It is believed that the Dutchman did not even return to his British base after his discharge, but ran straight to the plane waiting to fly him to Amsterdam Schiphol airport.
A car was waiting there to take him to Oldenzaal and there to his house with five bedrooms.
Ten Hag did not wait for his wife Bianca or their three children.
It is understood they have remained at his home in Cheshire, where Bianca will sort out administrative matters before joining him in the Netherlands.
The city he ran back to is Oldenzaal, a city with 31,000 inhabitants near the Dutch-German border
According to friends and neighbors, that is the place where he not only grew up, but also feels most comfortable.
Ten Hag and his wife Bianca often returned to the quiet town where almost everyone cycles to escape the pressures of running one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs.
It is also a place where, despite his fame as manager of top Dutch team Ajax and when United were paid £7.8 million a year, he can walk in relative anonymity.
More to follow.
