Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel has criticised former manager Erik ten Hag over his recent controversial remarks about the club.
Ten Hag’s assessment
Ten Hag recently spoke at length to The Athletic about his time in charge and held nothing back.
He launched a scathing attack on the football hierarchy, led by the Glazers and INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Ten Hag accused the club’s leadership of fostering a “toxic” environment that made it extremely hard to succeed.
The Dutch coach also revealed that he wanted to sign Harry Kane and Declan Rice, but the club could not secure the signings of the England duo.
Ten Hag’s remarks came as United endure a turbulent period, with pressure mounting on Michael Carrick. The 20-time English champions are currently on an eight-match winless run. Their last victory came against minnows Sabah FK in the Champions League.
United are languishing in 16th place, having gained just seven points from their opening eight matches. There was an expectation that Carrick would be sacked after the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth, but he is set to be in charge on Saturday for the meeting with Chelsea.
Speaking on The Overlap, a fuming Schmeichel accused Ten Hag of “stirring the pot” at United.
Schmeichel slams Ten Hag
The Dane said, “What really annoys me in everything that has happened in the past two weeks is Ten Hag coming out and saying that he wanted Declan Rice and Harry Kane, like he was a god.”
“It’s so ridiculous. He brought (Lisandro) Martinez in, (Matthijs) de Ligt. I mean he brought players in that are still there, how dare he go out and say that. Everybody knew we should sign Harry Kane. Everyone knows we should have signed Declan Rice, that’s no secret. I don’t know why we didn’t do that.”
| Player | Pos | United career | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaap Stam | DF | 1998–2001 | 127 | 1 |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy | FW | 2001–2006 | 219 | 150 |
| Edwin van der Sar | GK | 2005–2011 | 266 | 0 |
| Robin van Persie | FW | 2012–2015 | 105 | 58 |
| Daley Blind | U | 2014–2018 | 141 | 6 |
| Arnold Mühren | MF | 1982–1985 | 98 | 18 |
| Jordi Cruyff | FW | 1996–2000 | 58 | 8 |
| Raimond van der Gouw | GK | 1996–2001 | 60 | 0 |
| Alexander Büttner | DF | 2012–2014 | 28 | 2 |
| Memphis Depay | FW | 2015–2017 | 53 | 7 |
| Timothy Fosu-Mensah | DF | 2016–2020 | 30 | 0 |
| Donny van de Beek | MF | 2020–2023 | 62 | 2 |
| Tyrell Malacia | DF | 2022–2026 | 50 | 0 |
| Wout Weghorst | FW | 2023 | 31 | 2 |
| Joshua Zirkzee | FW | 2024– | 81 | 10 |
| Matthijs de Ligt | DF | 2024– | 57 | 3 |
“But you have now people stirring the pot where they should just keep calm and not talk and maybe talk about what they did for this football club themselves, or what they didn’t do. He wasn’t a success at Manchester United. Why does he feel the need to come out and say that?”
Schmeichel continued, “What he’s saying is ‘I was let down by the club’ and there might be an element of truth in that but he wasn’t good enough. And then he went to Bayer Leverkusen, a team who had just won the Bundesliga, and then he got sacked within, what, three games?”
“Maybe just take a step back and don’t put yourself in that because then you will end up with someone like me criticising him, and there’s no need for that. We don’t need it in the narrative.”
Ten Hag was dismissed by United in October 2024 after a string of poor results left the team 14th in the Premier League.
Featured image by Carl Recine via Getty Images
