Erik ten Hag’s treatment of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho was just one of the four reasons why Manchester United players were not sold on the Dutchman’s suitability for one of the biggest jobs in world football, reports have suggested in the wake of his sacking.
It took a controversial 2-1 defeat to West Ham United, following an end-of-season review in the summer, for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the club hierarchy for them to pull the plug on Ten Hag’s spell at Old Trafford.
Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim is set to replace the ex-Ajax boss with the ever-reliable Fabrizio Romano confirming his inevitable switch – but much of the discourse is surrounding what Ten Hag got wrong during his 128-game spell at the club.
Treatment of Ronaldo and Sancho Irked Man Utd Squad
Players believe Ten Hag took both situations ‘too far’
Often described as ‘too strict’ thanks to his stubbornness, Ten Hag’s fall-out with the aforementioned Ronaldo, who earned £515,000-per-week in Manchester, was a well-documented story after he spoke publicly with Piers Morgan, tearing the club to the ground.
The Portuguese refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham Hotspur in October 2022, which preceded punishment from Ten Hag and his entourage, which included training away from the senior team and the now-Al-Nassr man ordering an academy player to enter the dressing room on his behalf. The latter initially won over the rest of the squad, but sources told ESPN that Ten Hag eventually took the punishment too far, with the incident described as an “unnecessary humiliation.”
Ronaldo – in November 2022 – eventually left by mutual consent, but Ten Hag’s stand-off with Sancho never found a resolution, with the winger now on loan at Chelsea for the rest of the 2024/25 campaign. After a mixed start to life, things quickly turned sour after Ten Hag’s arrival with Sancho, who pocketed a whopping £250,000 on a weekly basis under the Dutchman.
The latter’s belatedly-deleted social media post initially caused a rift, which saw him train, eat and change in isolation – as ordered by the man in the dugout. Plenty of his teammates asked him to apologise and sweep things under the carpet but, as the situation prolonged, a large chunk of the Red Devils crop were under the impression that – again – Ten Hag had taken things too far.
Three Other Concerns over Ten Hag’s Methods
Man Utd squad also raised questions over the Dutchman’s communication
Ten Hag was never the most charismatic of managers. Compare him to Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, formerly of Liverpool, and there was always a chasm in his communication with the press during his media duties.
The same issue reportedly trickled into the dressing room. Complaints as early as following the first two defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford arose with the Haaksbergen-born custodian struggling to communicate and, as such, instructions were being lost in translation.
Admittedly, Ten Hag’s time in charge of the Premier League juggernauts was hampered by a litany of injuries with them fielding all manner of back lines throughout 2023/24, which turned out to be his final full season at the helm.
According to ESPN, however, many players believed that his training methods were too intense and the extra training sessions, often instructed on the back of poor results and performances, were viewed as counterproductive. Another notable statistic – and subsequent issues among the players – surrounding the manager, particularly last term, was the barrage of shots they faced.
Ten Hag’s stint in the Old Trafford dugout, albeit successful at times, will forever be clouded by his 7-0 loss to Liverpool – one of their worst defeats of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era – alongside an array of other embarrassing scorelines and players were under the impression that they were “too open”.