Cristiano Ronaldo launches new assault on Erik ten Hag

Cristiano Ronaldo has slammed Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag for his attitude since taking over the club.

Ronaldo – who expressed his views in a blockbuster interview with Rio Ferdinand that will be released tomorrow – is a legend at Old Trafford after scoring 145 goals in 326 appearances across two spells, while he also won nine trophies with the club.

However, his second stint ended in acrimony after a falling-out with Ten Hag, with Ronaldo subsequently terminating his contract, before he attacked the Dutchman and said he felt ‘betrayed’ by him.

And, speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, the Al-Nassr star again slammed Ten Hag and was hugely critical of his conduct as United boss.

‘As I told you, Manchester, they need to rebuild everything, in my opinion,’ he said.

Cristiano Ronaldo has launched a new attack on Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag

Ronaldo left United in November 2022 following an acrimonious fall-out with the Dutchman

Speaking in a blockbuster interview to Rio Ferdinand, Ronaldo criticised Ten Hag’s attitude

‘The coach, they say they cannot compete to win the League and Champions League. 

‘Manchester United coach, you cannot say that you’re not going to fight to win the League or Champions League. 

‘You have to be, to mentally say, listen, maybe we don’t have that potential, but I cannot say that. We’re going to try. You have to try.’

Since Ten Hag took over, United have finished third and eighth in the Premier League, although they have won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in that time, with the Dutchman regularly pointing to his trophy record in English football.

However, things have been far from plane-sailing, with last season’s eighth place finish United’s lowest in the Premier League era, while they also crashed out of the Champions League in the group stage.

There was significant speculation over Ten Hag’s future in the summer before the INEOS-led footballing structure decided to stick with him.

He was then backed with reinforcements in the transfer market and also within his coaching staff, which included the arrival former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

And Ronaldo felt that the appointment of the Dutchman – who scored 150 goals for the club in 219 games – was a step in the right direction, but he still offered a thinly-veiled dig at Ten Hag in the process.

‘If Ten Hag listen to Ruud, maybe he can (help himself),’ he explained. ‘I think it can help a lot because he knows the club and the club should listen the guys who were there. 

Ronaldo said the appointment of his former team-mate Ruud van Nistelrooy was positive

Ronaldo claimed that having former players back on the coaching staff is key for success

‘You [Rio] or Roy Keane or Paul Scholes or Gary Neville, whatever, Sir Alex Ferguson. You cannot, you cannot rebuild a club without knowledge. Not guys who work in office. They understand. 

‘The people who understand the football, it was, 99 per cent is the people who was there in the dressing room. They know how to deal with the players. It’s the people who understand these things. 

‘So I believe that Ruud is going to help because he was inside the club. He knows the club. He knows the fans. If the coach listens to him, I think they can improve a little bit the club.’

Despite the hints at positivity, Ronaldo reaffirmed his views that United – who have not won the Premier League in  11 years – still have a long way to go to get back to the top, with the 39-year-old hugely damning of the club when he conducted a bombshell interview with Piers Morgan shortly before leaving the club in 2022.

In the conversation with Morgan, Ronaldo had hit out at the lack of progress surrounding the club’s infrastructure, something that has improved since the appointments of Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox to the new football board after Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s partial takeover of the club last year.

Ronaldo claimed that Ten Hag must listen to Van Nistelrooy in order to help himself

Ronaldo also reaffirmed his thoughts that United have a long way to go to get back to the top

He added: ‘This club needs time to rebuild because it’s still one of the best clubs in the world, but they need to change. They understand that. This is the only way. 

‘This is why they show, they start to change again, the structure of the club, the president, the infrastructures and everything. The owners of the club. 

‘They’re investing in the training ground…So I’m happy because [things are changing] I’m not happy the way it all happened, but in the same way, we cannot control some points of our life sometimes, but it’s done, already done.’

Listen to the full Rio Meets Cristiano interview on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. RioFerdinandPresents.com