It promises to be a whirlwind few weeks in the life of Erik ten Hag, but Manchester United’s prospective new manager will take time out from his new job to remember a lost friend and a tragedy that helped to shape his career.
June 7 is a date Ten Hag has marked in his diary as a day of mourning. It was that day in 1989 that his close friend Andy Scharmin died in a plane crash en route to a charity tournament in Surinam. Scharmin, 21, had travelled from Amsterdam with his mother and 14 other players after rejecting the chance to play for Holland Under 21s in the Toulon Tournament.