As Manchester United prepare to host West Ham in Premier League action at Old Trafford on Sunday, gaffer Erik ten Hag says it’s his ambition to take United back to the pinnacle of the Premier League – a feat Pep Guardiola feels his previous staff and current opposition boss can achieve.
Dutch tactician and former Ajax head coach Ten Hag is now starting to make appreciable progress at Old Trafford after a patchy start to life in the hot-seat vacated by temporary gaffer Ralf Rangnick this summer.
Now with 20 points from 11 Premier League matches ahead of the visit of West Ham, United are comfortably in the mix for Champions League qualification.
United’s exciting turnaround indeed augurs well for its immediate future as the Red Devils have now gotten rival chief Guardiola sufficiently worried that the Etihad team’s boisterous neighbors are finally clambering up the hill, albeit slowly but steadily, after insufferably years of mediocrity in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.
Although the Cityzens convincingly thrashed a totally hapless and helpless United 6-3 at the Etihad Stadium in early October, the Catalan has made known his anxiety that the Red Devils could become direct rivals for City again in the near future.
This of course is precisely what former Ajax manager Ten Hag is hoping for and wants to achieve as soon as possible, as he declared in an interview with Sky Sports: “My aim is to win first games. Then to restore Manchester United where they belong – that’s at the top of mundial football.
“That’s what we are working for. Every day, to the best we can.”
It is pretty evident that United now seem to be well and with a strong fighting chance of battling for the top-four as they are undoubtedly improving with every game that goes by under their new unflappable head coach, who has succeeded in bringing some of that ‘feel good’ factor back to a long despondent Old Trafford.
Guardiola certainly does not rule United out of the Premier League title race, even if they are only currently in sixth position: “I have a feeling that United is coming. Finally, United is coming.
“I saw on Thursday [against Sheriff Tiraspol] and Chelsea in the first half.
“I thought ‘I like it’ what I see from United just now. I have a feeling United are coming back. That is why you have to fight for the title.”