Championship side Reading nearly appointed new Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag in 2016 – but couldn’t afford £300k fee so brought in Jaap Stam instead

Championship side Reading made an approach to appoint Erik ten Hag as their new manager in 2016, with the then-FC Utrecht boss 'open to the opportunity'.

Fast forward six years and the Royals are 21st in the second tier, having narrowly avoided relegation to League One, whilst the Dutchman has just been named manager of one of the biggest clubs in world football, Manchester United.

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If that wasn't painful enough for Reading fans, they missed out on appointing the former Ajax boss because the club couldn't afford the £300k release clause in his Utrecht contract. Ouch.

The club’s newly-appointed sporting director at the time, Brian Tevreden - a former youth coach at Ajax - wanted to take the club in a new, Dutch direction after the sacking of Brian McDermott.

And Tevreden revealed to talkSPORT about how close the Berkshire outfit came to bringing Ten Hag to the club - before eventually opting to appoint ex-Man United defender Jaap Stam.

“I knew Erik from when he was a coach at Go Ahead Eagles. He did pretty well, he got promoted with that team, I liked how he played with young players,” he said.

“After that, he was at Bayern Munich’s second team and, from the stories that I hear and the things that I saw when I watched games, I was really impressed with that. He then went to Utrecht and did the same thing again.

“When I made my transfer to Reading as a sporting director and the club made the decision to sack Brian McDermott, I made a list of managers from England and from abroad.

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“He was my No.1 target.

“We had a quick conversation, the owner, ‘Tiger’ (Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth), was on there as well, but, ultimately, I had to pay £300k but there was no budget.

“So, I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t do the deal.”

He added: “I had a couple of conversations with him, he was open to the opportunity, he then spoke to the owner.

“I knew there was a clause in his contract for £300k but the board told me there was no money. That was so painful for me!”

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Stam was eventually appointed by the club and had a successful spell at the Madjeski Stadium, guiding them to the Championship play-off final, before defeat to Huddersfield on penalties.

But the former Netherlands international was eventually sacked the following season after his tiki-taka footballing philosophy lost its effectiveness and left them languishing near the bottom of the division.

Man United announced the appointment of Ten Hag on Thursday, having seen the 52-year-old win two Eredivisie titles at Ajax and take them to a Champions League semi-final since taking charge in 2017 - a year after Reading's approach.

And Tevreden says that he's not surprised by Ten Hag's recent success and 'feels good' that he spotted the potential in his countryman earlier in his career.

He said: “I’m not surprised. You’ve seen what he’s done, you hear the stories, you see the way that he plays.

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“I’m very pleased for him, it’s a big job, and he’s developed well over the last few years.”

Tevreden added: “It gives you a good feeling that you saw the potential in him and, eventually, he fulfilled it.”

Since then, Reading have had four managers who have all failed to win promotion back to the Premier League.

Another ex-Red Devil, Paul Ince, is currently interim boss at the Madjeski Stadium, and has just about kept the club in the Championship after a relegation scare.

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Ten Hag, on the other hand, will arrive at Old Trafford in the summer and will have the chance to manage the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, and Bruno Fernandes.

It's funny how these things work out. Or, in Reading's case in this instance, absolutely agonizing...