Former Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag opens up on Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2022 exit
Erik ten Hag has claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo “let the team down and he let me down” during the attacker’s second stint at Manchester United.
The Portuguese international re-joined United under Ole Gunnar Solskjær in August 2021 with ten Hag arriving the following April.
In an interview Laurie Whitwell of The Athletic ten Hag said: “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.”
The Dutchman claimed that Ronaldo pulled out of training sessions, did not get his heart rate raised to the required level when he did train and did not complete the full run that ten Hag tasked the team with after they were embarrassed 4-0 at Brentford.
He added: “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.”
Ronaldo did not last long under ten Hag and had his contract with the club terminated in November 2022 after saying he felt “betrayed” by his manager in an interview with Piers Morgan.
Ten Hag also revealed that he felt “very embarrassed and disappointed” after the sale of Scott McTominay, despite claiming to have agreed with the board that the Scotland international would stay at Old Trafford after netting double digits in the 2023/24 season.
He also rued on missed signings that included Harry Kane, Declan Rice, Brian Brobbey and Danny Welbeck.
“I fought for it,” he said on Kane. “I heard that he was very positive, but I never spoke with him about the issue. I don’t know how the decision process went with John [Murtough – football director], Richard [Arnold – former Chief Executive], the Glazers.”
