Former Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag has reignited his bitter feud with Cristiano Ronaldo by accusing him of lacking professionalism.
Spat
Ten Hag infamously clashed with Ronaldo during his stint at United, as the pair failed to see eye to eye.
There were occasions when the Dutch coach left Ronaldo out of the squad, and eventually the frustration boiled over, with Ronaldo storming out of the stadium in fury.
Ronaldo then conducted a controversial interview with broadcaster Piers Morgan, in which he accused Ten Hag of disrespecting him. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner also criticised his teammates and even the owners for neglecting the club over the years.
United responded by terminating Ronaldo’s contract and paving the way for him to move to the Saudi Pro League.
Since then, the saga has been frequently revisited, with the prevailing perception that Ten Hag did not favour Ronaldo because of his unwillingness to press and perform defensive duties for the team.
Now technical director at Twente, Ten Hag has all but confirmed this, criticising Ronaldo’s poor preparation and effort while revealing that the forward attempted to influence his teammates during training.
Damning revelation
Ten Hag told Laurie Whitwell of The Athletic, “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 and keep the players I admire in.”
Ten Hag noted that Ronaldo pulled out of training altogether, refused to push his heart rate to the required level, and when he did deign to train, completed only two of the three laps of the infamous punishment run Ten Hag ordered after the Brentford humiliation in August 2022.
“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.”
“It’s the wrong idea to put this to me that I expected him to do the pressing, that he’s exhausted. But he couldn’t. He ran neither in possession nor out of possession. The reason was because he didn’t prepare himself.”
“Every top team has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team. He was telling the players, ‘Save your legs at the training’. I understand it when you are top fit; you have sessions, you can save the legs. But first you have to train yourself to get into the right fitness levels.”
Ten Hag lifted the FA Cup and Carabao Cup during his time at United.
Feature image Clive Brunskill via Getty Images
