MANCHESTER, England — The last thing Erik ten Hag needed was for Cristiano Ronaldo to reopen wounds with Manchester United.
Just weeks into the new season and a sense of crisis is already looming over Old Trafford. Two losses from the first three English Premier League rounds has left manager Ten Hag looking up at his rivals again, and club icon Ronaldo says United needs to “rebuild everything” to compete with the best.
“They have to rebuild from the bottom. If not, they cannot compete. It will be impossible,” Ronaldo said in an interview with the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.
Ronaldo was critical of Ten Hag when leaving United following an explosive interview with Piers Morgan in 2022, in which he didn’t respect the former Ajax manager.
His latest comments, in which he also accused Ten Hag of sending the wrong message regarding United’s ambitions, come at a time when the Dutchman is battling to turn around his team’s form after overseeing the club’s worst league season in 34 years.
“So, he’s far away in Saudi (Arabia), far from Manchester. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion. It’s okay,” Ten Hag responded.
But Ronaldo’s comments have cast another unhelpful spotlight on his former manager after losses to Liverpool and Fulham around a win over Brighton.
United goes to Southampton on Saturday, the start of a difficult run in the league that includes trips to Crystal Palace and Aston Villa and a home match against Tottenham.
Ten Hag, who kept his job after an internal review in the summer, was backed in the transfer market by new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe with six signings during the window. Also, the manager was publicly supported by the hierarchy.
Three hours before the Liverpool home game on Sept. 1, new CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth met with English media in the Old Trafford boardroom to explain why Ten Hag was the right man to take the club forward.
The quotes were not reported until after a humbling 3-0 loss, which gave them even more resonance.
Backing in soccer, however, is conditional. Ten Hag was given the benefit of the doubt in the offseason and the opportunity to prove last year’s eighth-place finish - United’s lowest in the Premier League era - was an outlier, rather than evidence of his unsuitability to return the club to the summit of European soccer.
After two years at Old Trafford, Ten Hag is used to the outside noise that is part and parcel of managing England’s most famous club and winner of a record 20 league titles, the last 11 years ago.
“It doesn’t impact me. I know in the process where we are, what we have to do, where we are going,” Ten Hag said on Thursday. “I have said before we are still in a transition period. We have to integrate a lot of young players also in the team.
“Before anyone thinks about excuses, no, we have to win every game.”
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