28 March 2023 , 18:38
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Would-be Manchester United owner Thomas Zilliacus has lauded "brilliant manager" Erik ten Hag, particularly praising his handling of Cristiano Ronaldo 's acrimonious exit.
Ten Hag has impressed in his first season at the helm, ending the Red Devils' six-year trophy drought and putting them on course for a return to the Champions League. Ronaldo's high-profile exit saga threatened to derail United's campaign before the World Cup break, but Ten Hag and co have only gotten stronger since.
Finnish tech businessman Zilliacus wants to become the club's next owner and enjoy the fruits of the Dutch boss' labour, battling fellow billionaires Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani for the keys to Old Trafford. While Ratcliffe has shaken hands with Ten Hag, Zilliacus is the first bidder to speak publicly about how Ten Hag is doing, as he awaits to learn the outcome of his offer.
The former Nokia chief told Dutch outlet NOS : "From what I've seen, [Ten Hag] is a brilliant manager. What he did with Ajax was amazing and what he's done now with Man United is equally amazing. Because early in the season, things didn't look very good.
"And he had the courage, which I really admire, to tell even big established stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, 'look, this is me running this and this is how I need to do'. And that led Ronaldo to leave the club which now seems to have been a good move, because the club is doing significantly better without him.
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"I think he's done an amazing job. So I really hope that he stays with the club and if I were to be the owner I'd definitely want to see him continue."
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Erik ten Hag and Cristiano Ronaldo shared a fractious relationship at Manchester United (Getty Images)Zilliacus also spoke exclusively to Mirror Football last week after news of his bid first emerged. Rivals privately questioned the seriousness of his offer, labelling it a publicity stunt. "I don't know where they've gotten that from," retorted the 69-year-old, who hails from Helsinki and was once chairman of the city's football club, HJK Helsinki, the most successful team in Finland.
"If you're rivals in a bidding process, you're of course trying to discredit others as much as you can. But I'd hope they wouldn't do that because this is a serious, genuine attempt by someone who loves football and the club to get ownership."
Affirming his intent to succeed the Glazers, Zilliacus added: "I've reached out to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim to say this is not about investing into a football club to make a lot of money because that just doesn't happen. It's the other way around, you put money in to make the club successful. So we're doing this for the love of football and Manchester United."