The Dutchman insisted his impact on football was second only to Pep Guardiola.
Erik Ten Hag has sung his own praises, claiming that he is stronger as a manager after winning the FA Cup with Manchester United.
He also said that he should be considered second only to Pep Guardiola in terms of the impact he has made since coming to English football.
Ten Hag was appointed as manager of Manchester United in April 2022, and took charge of the club for the 22/23 Premier League season.
He won the Carabao Cup in his first season in charge, and led the team to cup success again this year with an impressive victory over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the FA Cup final at Wembley in May.
Now, in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times‘ Michael Grant, the former Ajax boss has defended his record in England and insisted the best is yet to come.
“This club didn’t win trophies, before I came, for six years,” he said. “In two years, after Guardiola, we won the most trophies in English football. So we are in a strong position.
“Look, we can beat every opponent. Not one time, more than one time against City and also against Liverpool. But the truth is that there is a long way to go and we have to be more consistent and we need to create a winning culture.
“It’s not only a dressing room winning culture, higher standards should be delivered across the whole club,” he added.
Those high standards certainly look to be in place amongst United’s new board of directors.
The club’s new CEO Omar Berrada, and sporting director Dan Ashworth only started their roles in the last couple of week’s, but have already been busy in the transfer market.
In the space of 10 days, they secured the signature of promising Dutch forward Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna, and stole Lille defender Leny Yoro from the clutches of Champions League winners Real Madrid earlier this week.
Both signings seem reflective of the club’s new commitment to investing in youth, as opposed to signing experienced players nearing the twilight of their career.
With some outgoings expected in order to fund further signings, Ten Hag acknowledged that players will have to be moved on to create space for fresh talent.
“That is also obvious, but we want to have a strong squad,” said the 54-year-old.
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“As strong as possible and I think at this moment the football leadership is on the front foot. That’s what clubs like Man United should do and so we are very pleased that we have done business.
“We have Yoro in, we have Zirkzee in,” he added. “We have two highly big assets with big potential for the future. But when I say future, the future starts today. The next game is always the most important.
“You need competition and you need quality players, but you also need quantity. The season is even tougher than last season so we have to be ready for that.”
United’s youngsters impressed during their 2-0 victory over Rangers at Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh yesterday.
Despite being just 18-years-old, Yoro looked firmly at home at centre-back, and last season’s shooting star Amad Diallo scored a world-class goal sweeping in from the right-wing with a left-foot strike from the edge of the penalty area.
Speaking about Yoro’s first impression, Ten Hag said: “For the first time, with only one training session, it’s a very mature performance. That’s the way we saw him when we scouted him.
“It’s great to have him and he’s very young for a centre back,” he added. “There is a lot to come but you can see already that he has great potential. He is here and we think he can play but there are so many games to come and he will be in a group of four or five.”
United’s next pre-season friendly comes against last season’s Premier League runners-up Arsenal in California.
