Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag admitted it was “not nice to hurt something you love” as he prepares for the Europa League clash against his former club FC Twente on Wednesday night.
The Dutchman progressed through the club’s youth academy and made 234 appearances for the first team in three different periods.
He memorably led Twente to the KNVB Cup in 2001, one of only three times the club has won the cup in its history.
Ten Hag ended his active career at the club in 2002, after which he began coaching in the club’s youth academy.
The 54-year-old spoke of his emotional bond with his former club ahead of Manchester United’s opening Europa League clash against Twente at Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag admitted that he would rather not play against his old club FC Twente in the Europa League
Ten Hag represented the Dutch team three times as a player and started as a manager at the club
Ten Hag, third on the left in the middle row, came through Twente’s youth academy to play for the first team
“I would have preferred to play someone else,” he admitted. “It’s not nice to hurt something you love.”
“Of all the teams, Twente is the team I follow the most. I watch it as a fan, as a supporter, not as an analyst. It’s a different way of watching their games.
‘Twente has given me a lot, I studied there and learned a lot of history there.
‘Manchester United, that’s what I represent, but I also feel part of this club. And now I have to beat my former great love
“I have to do my job and we have to win, and we want to take the next step in the process. And so we want to improve as a team and I have to put all my efforts into making that happen.”
Ten Hag saw his playing and coaching career shaped by his time at Twente, through both successes and tragedies.
The tragedies his friends endured were seen as driving forces behind Ten Hag’s determination to reach the top.
The first time this happened was in June 1989, when his friend Andy Scharmin – who was on the verge of breaking through to the first team of Twente together with Ten Hag – died in a plane crash.
Ten Hag’s career was shaped by his time at Twente, including tragedies off the field
The Dutchman played as a central defender for Twente and led the club to the KNVB Cup in 2001.
Scharmin, born in Suriname, a former Dutch colony in South America, travelled back to Suriname for a charity tournament. He had turned down the chance to play for the Dutch under-21 team in a tournament in Toulon.
On June 7, 1989, however, the Suriname Airways plane crashed during landing at Paramaribo-Zanderij airport. Scharmin, his mother and 14 other players were among the 178 of the 187 people on board who died.
The then 19-year-old Ten Hag received the terrible news when his FC Twente teammate, Edwin Hilgerink, rang his doorbell in the small town of Haaksbergen, where they had grown up in the east of the country.
“I will never forget Edwin standing on my doorstep and telling me that a plane had crashed with Andy and his mother on board,” Ten Hag recalls.
“That was a huge blow. At his funeral I carried Andy’s coffin with other teammates. It happened on June 7, 1989 and every year on that date I have a day of mourning.”
Just a few months after Ten Hag left the club for the first time, Twente’s new summer signing Tom Krommendijk was killed while driving home in his car.
The death of former youth player Gino Weber and the fact that youth player Wilfried Elzinga had to retire early due to an injury also had a major impact on Ten Hag.
Ten Hag’s philosophy is strongly influenced by his mentor and former youth coach Epi Drost, who died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 49.
Ten Hag was captain of Twente at the time of the explosion in a fireworks shed in 2000, which killed 23 people and destroyed hundreds of houses in Enschede
“I often think back to my youth at Twente,” says Ten Hag. “Three boys were so good that they could have made the national team. But one of them got seriously injured and two other boys died young. It puts everything into perspective.
‘Epi Drost was my idol. He was a lover of adventurous football. He encouraged creativity, because that was the most important thing for him. Epi died of a heart attack during a match. That was a huge blow to me.’
During his third spell as a player at Twente, an explosion in a fireworks warehouse in Enschede – where the club plays – killed 23 people and injured 950. Hundreds of homes were also destroyed by the explosion.
Ten Hag later indicated that he was angry that Twente had to play a match only one day after the disaster.
The club’s success in the KNVB Cup a year later was seen as an important factor for the joy in the region.
“When I think of the cup final, I think of the euphoria, the happiness, the sensation. It is a prize that is inextricably linked to the fireworks disaster,” Ten Hag said in a Interview from 2021.
‘Twenty years later, the disaster is still a sensitive issue, it has left a crater in the city and the aftermath is still palpable. Without wanting to overstate the importance of football, winning the cup gave the city back some pride a year after the disaster.’
After retiring as a player in 2003, Ten Hag went on to fulfil his coaching ambitions at the club. He started as coach of the under-17 team and then led the under-19 team for three years.
His career continued when he became assistant manager, a role he took on when former England manager Steve McClaren took charge in 2008.
Ten Hag started his coaching career at Twente and was assistant to Steve McClaren
The pair later turned the tables when Ten Hag became manager of Manchester United
McClaren, who later served as assistant to the Dutchman, is said to have let Ten Hag lead training for his first two months at the club so that he could immerse himself in the club’s culture.
Ten Hag eventually left the club to pursue his own coaching ambitions, when McClaren led Twente to the national title in 2010.
After leaving Twente four times as a player and coach, a return in the future cannot be ruled out.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Ten Hag’s former teammate Boudewijn Pahlplatz indicated that he is convinced that the Man United manager has ambitions to take on a different role at the Dutch club in the future.
‘A few years ago, I think about 10 years ago or so, he said: “One day I will return to FC Twente and then I will become chairman,”‘ said Pahlplatz.