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Ten Hag accused Ronaldo of letting the team down
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Ten Hag Urged Manchester United Not To Sack Carrick.
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Ten Hag won two trophies for Manchester United.
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Ten Hag Revealed the details behind his clash with Ronaldo.
October 20, (THEWILL) – Former Manchester United manager, Erik Ten Hag, has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo disappointed him and his teammates during their time at Old Trafford.
The Dutch manager accused Ronaldo of setting a bad example at the club during his brief stint in the first half of the 2022-23 campaign.
Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United for his second spell from Juventus in August 2021 before falling out with Ten Hag in November which led to his acrimonious exit.
The Portuguese Captain criticised the club and Erik Ten Hag in an interview with Piers Morgan, which consequently led to his contract termination.
However, Erik Ten Hag has revealed what transpired between him and Ronaldo, accusing him of letting the team down.
He said in an interview with The Athletic on Tuesday.
“He let the team down, and he let me down, because we planned with him. I flew out to Portugal to speak with him about what I was aiming for before I came to United.
”Obviously, he’s one of the best in football history. I respected him a lot. But at that time, as a manager, I had to make a rational decision.”
Ten Hag also alleged that Ronaldo struggled with fitness, accusing him of pulling out of training sessions.
He said: “I confronted him with this. Many times I say, ‘Ronnie, everyone wants to work for you to bring you in the right position, but if you can’t bring yourself in the box, you can’t score’. He was not capable to do this.
“He added that Ronaldo ran neither in possession nor out of possession” because “he didn’t prepare himself” and told teammates to “save your legs at the training.”
“Ronaldo was telling the players: save your legs at training. I understand it when you are top fit, but first you have to train yourself to get into the right fitness levels”
“Every top team has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team.”
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Ten Hag also admitted that he died everything to sign Barcelona midfielder Frenkie De Jong during his time at Manchester United.
He said: “Of course, I did everything I could. I arranged meetings with him, which Richard and John also attended, to convince him to come.”
The former Ajax manager has urged the club not to sack Michael Carrick following the team’s poor start to the season with two wins from 10 matches.
Ten Hag concluded: “It is not the solution to dismiss him. 100 per cent not. Fans will demand this if results don’t improve – it is coming out from the stomach, from the emotion.
“You have to make rational decisions. He showed good coaching abilities at Middlesbrough and last season. So let him do his process. I think he has a good staff.”
Ten Hag managed a total of 128 matches for Manchester United, winning 73, drawing 23, and losing 35. He led the club to the League Cup and the FA Cup in 2022.
He is currently working as the Technical director for FC Twente in the Netherlands.
