Ten Hag retired from taking part in on the finish of the next season. He was made head of youth improvement and, together with Snelders, now again within the Netherlands, began to earn his teaching badges.
“Me and Erik needed to do 18 classes and we all the time drove collectively, besides when the carnival was round and Erik wished to go, so he chucked it,” mentioned Snelders.
Regardless of his occasional absence, Ten Hag nonetheless bought his teaching badges as a result of he was “well-liked” and just about “knew his data already” added Snelders.
“He wasn’t fairly the trainer’s pet, however the academics had been all the time asking ‘do you agree with that Erik?'”
By the point of his last season with Twente, 2008-09, Ten Hag was so embedded with the membership that supervisor Steve McClaren – previously England boss – let him take coaching classes for the primary two months of his tenure, in order to not upset the facet’s tradition.
Ten Hag left to turn out to be a coach at PSV Eindhoven in 2009, having helped form the trendy Twente. However how did the membership affect him?
“He cares about folks. He’s a really caring soul,” mentioned Snelders. “He isn’t just within the participant but additionally the individual, and their households.
“I did not suppose he’d be managing Manchester United [when he left Twente]. However he made the best steps to develop and he is superb with younger gamers.
“He is bought the expertise. At Ajax he grew once more. What he did there was unbelievable.”