Ten Hag concedes there were communication concerns before their meeting in Ibiza ahead of him being confirmed for the new season.
He told AD: “Yes, communication broke down (with INEOS).
“But I was just celebrating holidays with my loved ones, and I let things happen. I have no influence on that.
“Of course that is a strange state of affairs. But it’s not like I panicked. It’s a decision that was out of my hands. I just waited it out. At that moment you just think in two scenarios - either we continue or not. It’s that simple and I’m level-headed enough to look at it that way.
“They didn’t say ‘we still want to continue’, but ‘we want to continue’. The argument they gave was in short - we have looked at everything and compared everything, but we think we already have the best manager in house.
“Then I said, ‘then we have to discuss a number of things about how we will interact with each other and work together’. We had a good, honest, but also confrontational conversation about this. As it should be at the top.”