Erik ten Hag hævder, at Cristiano Ronaldo “didn’t prepare himself” på den rigtige måde til kampene for Manchester United, og at klubben “wasn’t the highest priority” for portugiseren.
Ten Hag blev fyret af United i oktober 2024, efter en række dårlige resultater havde efterladt Red Devils på en 14. plads i Premier League.
Ronaldo forlod Old Trafford ved udgangen af 2022 efter et opgør med Ten Hag. Hans kontrakt blev ophævet i fælles forståelse, efter han havde brændt broer i et berygtet interview med Piers Morgan.
Den 41-årige afviste interesse fra Europa og skiftede i starten af 2023 til Al Nassr i den saudiske Pro League. Siden da har han scoret 134 mål i 157 kampe for klubben fra Mellemøsten.
Ten Hag: “He let the team down”
I et interview med The Athletic talte Ten Hag om Ronaldos andet ophold i United: “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.”
Han fortsatte: “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.”
De fleste opfatter Ronaldo som en gennemprofessionel, men Ten Hag sår tvivl om det billede. Han antyder, at angriberen ikke forberedte sig rigtigt, og at United-legenden angiveligt bad andre spillere om at “save their legs” under træning.
Ten Hag uddybede: “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.”
Han tilføjede: “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.”
Meget af det, Ten Hag siger, svarer til det, man så ved VM i 2026, hvor Ronaldo havde svært ved at komme frem i feltet og gøre en forskel for Portugal.
Ten Hag sagde videre: “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.”
Madrid-forbindelsen
Om ankomsten af Ronaldo, Raphael Varane og Casemiro som et tidligere Real Madrid-trio sagde Ten Hag: “I can say I think that’s what the Madrid connection brought in, that players are powerful and they want to decide. In my opinion it didn’t suit the phase United was in. The leadership wanted attacking, dynamic football and these players wanted to play what fitted themselves.”
Hvorfor landede United ikke Rice eller Kane?
Der var rygter om, at Ten Hag ville have Arsenal-midtbanespilleren Declan Rice, som dengang spillede for West Ham, til United. Hollænderen mener, at Red Devils “could have done more to test” Hammers.
Ten Hag forklarede: “The issue was that West Ham didn’t want to let him go. I think we could have done more to test. We were on one page, they tried, but I don’t know how the process went. The point is, at United you need outstanding players.”
Den tidligere United-manager hævder desuden, at Harry Kane var “very positive” over for et skifte til Red Devils, men at klubbens ledelse igen ikke ville strække sig langt nok for den tidligere Tottenham-angriber.
Ten Hag afslørede: “I said to them, ‘I want only one player — and you know who’. I fought for it. 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, Richard, the Glazers.”
“They came to the conclusion. I don’t have the insights in the financials.”