Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag and club legend Cristiano Ronaldo clearly have no love lost between the two of them, but as CR7 weighs in on the Red Devils’ continued issues, one side is starting to build a much more convincing case than the other.
Cristiano returned to Manchester United from Juventus in the summer 2021 transfer window, scoring 18 goals in the Premier League while adding more iconic Champions League moments to his resume.
But Cristiano was pushed out of the club by ten Hag in the middle of the 2022/23 season, with the Dutch coach seemingly vindicated by a third-place finish and a return to the Champions League.
After finishing eighth last season, ten Hag is back under pressure and somehow kept his job under new ownership group INEOS, who provided the manager with more summer reinforcements like Joshua Zirkzee and Leny Yoro.
Manchester United have been poor to start the 2024/25 season, too, and Cristiano Ronaldo recently made the point that ten Hag needs to respect the input of club legends more – legends like former striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is now ten Hag’s assistant.
Ten Hag responded by saying,”He said that; That Manchester United can’t win the Premier League.He said this. If you read the article very well. He is far away in Saudi, far away from Manchester so everyone can have an opinion and is entitled to have an opinion. It is OK.”
But he also said, “It is very early in the season and it is about winning trophies, being as high as possible in the league, do everything to win every game and then we will see in May where we are in the league.”
Cristiano Ronaldo had criticized Erik ten Hag for lacking ambition and for not wanting to win the Premier League, which should be the standard goal set by Manchester United every season.
So by giving vague goals like “being as high as possible” instead of going for the league title, ten Hag is affirming Cristiano’s criticism, not showing the ambition he and other club legends want to see from a Manchester United manager.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.