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Former Manchester United defender Daley Blind has admitted he was tempted to call Erik ten Hag and inquire about the possibility of returning to Old Trafford when he left Ajax in January.
Blind was at United between 2014 and 2018.
While in England, the Dutch defender won the FA Cup, League Cup and the Europa League. He started in two of those three finals.
Blind was released by Ajax back in January before signing for Bayern Munich as a free agent on a six-month contract.
He managed four appearances for the Bundesliga champions.
Blind sat down with United club media and admitted a possible return to the Theatre of Dreams appealed to him at the start of the year, but he elected against following through on this desire.
The 33-year-old was asked whether he called Ten Hag. To this he said, “No [I didn’t call him].”
“To be honest, he has the same agent as me, so the connection is not that far away. But yeah, he did not really need me at that moment.”
“He [had] already bought some players in. [Lisandro] Martinez as well, in the same position, and I am not blaming him for that. I am very thankful for the time [I had] with him. I learned a lot from him.”
Blind compared his first season at United to the criticism Martinez attracted when he made the jump from the Netherlands to England last season.
Blind said that similar to Martinez, he was slammed for lacking height and not looking like Nemanja Vidic.
He added that just like he did, Martinez is proving the doubters wrong – central defenders can now be built differently and excel at their craft just as well as others who fit in with stereotypical thinking of how a centre-back should look like.
