A former Manchester United player has revealed what life is like at Old Trafford, under the stewardship of Erik ten Hag.
The midfielder says the Dutch manager runs a tight ship, and that he is ‘strict’ implementer of his regimen.
He says ten Hag is a ‘very approachable guy’ but is ‘very strict’, and doesn’t mince his words.
And it was this demeanour that was on show when the player in question first sat down with ten Hag to discuss his future with the club.
James Garner says he felt ‘his days were numbered’ after a conversation with the Red Devils’ boss, when he first joined the club in the summer of 2022.
Erik ten Hag is described as a ‘very approachable’ but ‘very strict’ man manager at Old Trafford
James Garner was a product of Man United’s youth academy, playing seven times for the club
‘Ten Hag is a very approachable guy but is very strict,’ Garner has. ‘He takes no one bending the rules. He will say it how it is and will punish people if they have done the wrong things.
‘My talk with him was easy. I asked him plain and simple whether I was going to be in the squad or if he saw me playing a part. I felt the conversation did not go as well as I wanted and I made the decision to move.’
‘Nothing is promised in football but when they start signing three, four midfielders you kind of understand your place.
‘It was a decision that I wanted to make as soon as I went back, to go find first-team football somewhere else.’
Garner (right) has made 53 Premier League appearances for Everton since 2022, scoring once
Garner played seven times for his boyhood club, with whom he spent 13 years. He came through the Red Devils’ academy system, and was loaned out to Watford and Nottingham Forest through his career.
It was his second loan spell at Forest that captured several Premier League teams’ attention, as he played an integral part in their promotion to the top flight in the 2021-22 season.
