Growing concerns in Manchester United over role of Erik ten Hag's agent in summer transfers

Manchester United staff have aired concerns at how much influence Erik ten Hag’s agent, Kees Vos, is beginning to have on their transfer dealings.

Ten Hag has just finished his second summer at Old Trafford in which huge sums, once again, have been spent to bring in the likes of Mason Mount, Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund. Vos’s Sports Entertainment Group have become the club’s most used agency when it comes to bringing in new talent.

SEG were responsible for helping to negotiate £178million worth of transfers with Vos a regular visitor to their Carrington training base. Reports say that Ten Hag’s son, Nigel, also works for the agency as an analyst, further tightening the bond.

Hojlund joined SEG the month before he left Atalanta for Manchester in a deal that cost the club £72m. Ten Hag also made a deadline day move for Moroccan Sofyan Amrabat, whom he chased for several weeks, with Vos’s agency representing the midfielder in the deal.

Highly-regarded youngster Zidane Iqbal, who has come through the United academy, saw his exit to Utrecht negotiated by SEG just months after he had made the switch from rival agency CAA Base. Other agents have apparently grown frustrated at missing out on such deals as a result of SEG’s links to Ten Hag.

As the leading Dutch agency, SEG have previously helped bring the likes of Robin van Persie, Memphis Depay and Daley Blind to the red half of Manchester, but their influence at the club had become pretty minimal until United opted to appoint Ten Hag last summer, at which point they become more heavily involved once again.

SEG are a global business with 600 athletes on their books. The company also enjoy close links with Manchester City, as leading Spanish agent Pere Guardiola joined the company 18 months ago, meaning brother Pep joined as a big name client.

United had completed 45 intermediary transactions between February 2022 and January 2023 – all which are published by the FA – and there is not one contract listed by SEG during that period.

In Ten Hag’s first summer in charge he made moves to sign the likes of Lisandro Martinez and Antony, two men whom he worked with at Ajax.

He also raided the Eredivisie to sign Tyrell Malacia. Criticism has previously been levelled at Ten Hag for his reliance on the Dutch market while there are also suggestions from Manchester that members of the club’s recruitment staff were against the move to sign Amrabat late in this summer’s window – but the deal was pushed through late on the insistence of Ten Hag.