Manchester United target breaks silence on 'no-brainer' move as Erik ten Hag plan becomes clear

Manchester United are closing in on their first arrival of the summer as Rene Hake has reportedly said "yes" to the club.

Hake, 52, is the head coach of Eredivisie side Go Ahead Eagles but is ready to take the "great opportunity" of becoming an assistant coach to Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford this summer. The expectation is that Ruud van Nistlerooy will also return in a similar capacity.

Both will potentially replace Mitchell van der Gaag as part of a coaching staff reshuffle. Benni McCarthy will also seemingly depart when the coach's contract expires at the end of this month.

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Hake, however, has acknowledged that a move to United is at the forefront of his thoughts. "It is not in the back of your mind, but in your forehead," Hake told Algemeen Dagblad on Friday. "It can't get any crazier, right?"

The coach has worked in the Netherlands for two decades in various roles at several clubs. He and Ten Hag have spent time at Go Ahead Eagles, Utrecht and Twente during their careers. Hake joined the latter three years after Ten Hag retired as a player for the club, the future United boss' second stint in Enschede.

Initially working in the youth academy, coaching their under-19s and under-21s, Hake returned to Twente a decade after first joining as an assistant coach before eventually becoming their head coach.

Around that time, Ten Hag became Utretcht's boss, who Hake would go on to coach three years afterwards. That was his penultimate job before getting the Go Ahead Eagles job, where Ten Hag began his management career. After years of coaching against each other in the Netherlands, during which time comparisons were made between their shared football vision, they will seemingly be working on the same side next season.