The ex-United goalkeeper addressed these recurring rumours, quelling them as he insisted that he was “not finished” at Ajax. “It’s never been that close," he told The Times. “I have a good relationship with the board and I had a fantastic six years in Manchester, but I’m not finished here yet.”

One potential stumbling block may very well be whether or not Ten Hag and Van der Sar’s relationship has deteriorated because the head coach’s transfer to United. He took each Lisandro Martinez and Antony with him in offers that the outgoing Ajax CEO described as “not really helping us”.

“So, of course, we're losing Erik,” Van der Sar advised BT Sport in September. “We knew we were losing already a great manager. And yeah, he's not really helping us. Of course, he took two of our best players also [Antony and Martinez], we got a good transfer fee for them. And of course, that is the fate a little bit that Ajax has.”