Every Dutch manager in the Premier League ranked ahead of Erik ten Hag's Man Utd mission
The Premier League has a new Dutch manager as Erik ten Hag takes charge of Manchester United, but how how his compatriots done in the competition before?
Erik ten Hag has arrived at Manchester United, the lastest in a long line of managers attempting to return the Red Devils to the top.
He will also be the latest Dutchman to try his luck at managing in the Premier League - the ninth in fact - and it's been a real mixed bag so far.
So, based on points-per-game, we have ranked the previous Dutch managers in the Premier League and looked at what Ten Hag needs to produce to be considered a success at United.
Frank de Boer
Matches: 4
Wins: 0
Draws: 0
Defeats: 4
Goals scored: 0
Goals conceded: 7
PPG: 0.00
Rene Meulensteen
Matches: 13
Wins: 3
Draws: 1
Defeats: 9
Goals scored: 15
Goals conceded: 34
PPG: 0.77
Dick Advocaat
Matches: 17
Draws: 6
Defeats: 8
Goals scored: 16
Goals conceded: 28
PPG: 0.88
#Sunderland manager Dick #Advocaat in tears tonight his side secure Premier League safety.
— The Moral Goal (@TMGF12) May 20, 2015
Video: scottryansafc pic.twitter.com/Z7KSxkqmfm
That was reasonable enough. Advocaat was 68 years old at the time and had dragged his family all over the world. His wife was insisting they had a retirement together and Sunderland wanted a fresh start in the summer.
Only one of those things happened, though. He kept Sunderland up. He did try to leave in the summer too, but Sunderland fans organised a whip-round to buy his wife flowers to persuade her to release him from his retirement promise. Several dozen bouquets later, she relented, probably just to stop the madness, and Advocaat returned to Sunderland that summer. He didn't last long into the next season, however.
Martin Jol
Matches: 202
Wins: 75
Draws: 51
Defeats: 76
Goals scored: 277
Goals conceded: 281
PPG: 1.36
Jol was brought to the Premier League by Jacques Santini, who appointed him as his assistant at Tottenham. Things escalated quickly from there with the Frenchman lasting just 13 games and Jol promoted into his job.
After solid spells at Hamburg and Ajax, Jol resumed his Premier League career with Fulham, but it never really clicked for him in west London.
Ruud Gullit
Matches: 102
Wins: 41
Draws: 26
Defeats: 37
Goals scored: 164
Goals conceded: 148
PPG: 1.46
Ruud Gullit brought a real touch of glamour to the Premier League as a player and he then made it his mission to give 'sexy football' to English supporters as a manager too.
When Ruud Gullit dropped Alan Shearer for the Tyne-Wear derby. pic.twitter.com/AgnXn7cnaO
— Sky Sports Retro (@SkySportsRetro) December 10, 2020
He won an FA Cup with Chelsea - the only managerial honour of his career - and, at times, they played some outstanding football too. He also got them to sixth in the table, which was a fine result for Chelsea back then. He was sacked after just a couple of years in charge, though, with chairman Ken Bates saying: "I didn't like his arrogance - in fact I never liked him."
That is probably a sentiment shared by Alan Shearer. Gullit's other Premier League job was at Newcastle, where he attempted to assert himself by dropping Shearer for a home derby against Sunderland.
Ronald Koeman
Matches: 123
Wins: 55
Draws: 27
Defeats: 41
Goals scored: 182
Goals conceded: 136
PPG: 1.56
That was how it played out in England, certainly. Koeman took over a fine Southampton side that had been left to him by Mauricio Pochettino and he was able to keep it ticking along. He got them a sixth-placed finish, which shouldn't be underestimated, but it never really felt like his team.
It got him a job at Everton where he was given the biggest transfer budget of any manager in the club's history. Remarkably, he spent £150million - yet forgot to replace his top scorer, Romelu Lukaku, whose sale had provided the bulk of that money.
Louis van Gaal
Matches: 76
Wins: 39
Draws: 19
Defeats: 18
Goals scored: 111
Goals conceded: 72
PPG: 1.79
Ever since Louis van Gaal led a brilliant young Ajax team to the Champions League title in 1995, he has been a manager who has been shrouded in mystique.
His record is a weird one, in the sense that he has always kind of just about achieved what is expected, but never especially convincingly. He won Eredivisie titles with Ajax, he won a couple of La Liga titles with Barcelona and he won a Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
An Eredivisie title with AZ was the outlier, although Steve McClaren doing the same with Twente the following season does have you questioning just how hard it was to win that particular competition at the time.
Van Gaal repeated that pattern in the Premier League. He arrived at Manchester United, won a trophy (the FA Cup), never really convinced, and left somehow with his reputation as a top coach unaffected despite the total absence of anything remotely remarkable being achieved.
Guus Hiddink
Matches: 34
Wins: 18
Draws: 12
Defeats: 4
Goals scored: 62
Goals conceded: 35
PPG: 1.94
Hiddink was appointed interim Chelsea manager twice as a personal favour to Roman Abramovich back in the day. In the first of those spells, Hiddink was doing the job at the same time as he was the coach of Russia. That was back in the 2008/09 season and he delivered an FA Cup at the end of it. He left with a huge win-percentage of 73%.
Perhaps he should have left it there. Chelsea and Hiddink tried to repeat the trick in 2015/16, but it was much less successful. In fact, his win-percentage was barely half of what it was during his first spell.
Hiddink still remains the benchmark for Ten Hag to beat, however, when he finally gets his teeth into the United role.
But even becoming the most successful Dutch manager in Premier League history won't be enough.
An average of 1.94 points per game might seem like a lot, but it's will only get you 73 points over the course of a top-flight campaign and has yet to deliver anyone a Premier League title. For context, it is an almost identical record to that of Chelsea last season, who finished third, a massive 19 points behind champions Manchester City.