'He let the team and me down': Erik ten Hag reflects on Cristiano Ronaldo fallout at Manchester United

Former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo let both him and the team down during their time together at the club. The Dutchman said he was eager to work with Ronaldo and had even travelled to Portugal to discuss his plans with the forward before taking charge of Man United in 2022.

“He let the team down, and he let me down, because we planned with him,” Ten Hag told The Athletic.

“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,” he added.

Ten Hag also expressed disappointment with Ronaldo’s training habits and claimed that the Portuguese star missed some training sessions, failed to work at the required intensity on other occasions and did not complete the running exercise assigned to the squad after their 4-0 defeat to Brentford early in the 2022-23 season.

“I confronted him with this,” the Dutchman said. “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.”

Ten Hag added that even the best players must put the team’s needs first.

“Every top team has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team.”

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He further claimed that Ronaldo encouraged other players to save their energy during training sessions.

“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.”

The former United manager also felt that Ronaldo’s attitude influenced some of his teammates.

“Players have to act, they have a big responsibility. Football is, for some, not the highest priority. And United for some wasn’t the highest priority.”

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Ronaldo returned to Manchester United from Juventus in Aug 2021 and enjoyed a strong first season, scoring 24 goals in 38 appearances. However, his relationship with the club worsened after Ten Hag took over in May 2022.

The Portuguese forward began the 2022-23 campaign with United but gradually lost his place in the starting line-up. In October, he refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham Hotspur and left Old Trafford before the final whistle. Ten Hag subsequently left him out of the squad for the match against Chelsea.

In Nov 2022, Ronaldo gave an interview to Piers Morgan in which he criticised Manchester United and declared that he had “no respect” for Ten Hag.

Later that month, the club announced that his contract had been terminated with immediate effect by mutual agreement. Ronaldo then joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr in Dec 2022.