The Sports Guru
Erik ten Hag won two trophies at Manchester United and was still sacked in his third season. His account of an Ibiza agreement, a sold midfielder and a striker he did not get explains why he believes the project fell apart, and where his version leaves gaps.
Erik ten Hag beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final, kept his job, and says United then failed to honour what they had promised him. That is the core of his first long public account since the October 2024 sacking, and it is lopsided by nature: these are the former manager's claims, given to The Athletic, and not established fact. They deserve attention because of the recurring pattern. Nearly every complaint circles back to one issue, namely who really held authority over United's football decisions.
An extra year, and what came with it
Consider the order of events. Ten Hag appeared set to be dismissed just before the 2024 FA Cup final, because United's contact with possible replacements, among them Thomas Tuchel and Roberto De Zerbi, had leaked. Victory by 2-1 over Pep Guardiola's side made the hierarchy change course. That gave him two trophies in two campaigns, after the League Cup 15 months earlier. Two weeks after Wembley, the option of an additional year on his deal was activated following talks while he was on holiday in Ibiza.
Ten Hag says he would not carry on with a single year remaining. "They promised me loyalty, they promised me backing, they promised communication," he says, adding that the promises were not kept. In his words, the Wembley celebrations were the best moment of his Manchester life.
Analysis: the order of events tells us more than any one quote. A manager who has just lived through a public hunt for his successor is in a weakened position. A deal struck from there rests on goodwill rather than structure, and what he describes is goodwill running out.
The McTominay test
His clearest illustration involves Scott McTominay. Ten Hag says the Ibiza understanding was that the midfielder would stay, reasoning that United lacked scoring ability and McTominay provided it. The player had scored 10 goals that campaign. He joined Napoli later that summer for €30.5m (then £25.7m), money that helped United fund the purchase of Manuel Ugarte. "I got, of course, very embarrassed and disappointed," Ten Hag says.
The interview carries nothing from United on that exchange, so it stays one man's recollection. Still, his reasoning fits a worry he keeps raising: goals, he says, were the largest problem across all three of his years.
The striker he did not get
This is where Harry Kane enters. In the 2023 window, Ten Hag says, he told the club he wanted a single player, adding "you know who". "I fought for it," he says. He heard Kane was very positive but never spoke to him, and says he cannot tell how John Murtough, Richard Arnold and the Glazers reached their decision. The answer was no, and he says he had no insight into the financials.
Kane left Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern Munich in a €110m deal. Since then he has scored 157 goals in 155 games for the German club, twice lifting the Bundesliga, and he is nominated for this year's Ballon d'Or.
Declan Rice follows a comparable path. Ten Hag pushed for him once Frenkie de Jong declined to join, yet says West Ham were unwilling to sell and that United "could have done more to test" that. Rice went to Arsenal in a package worth £105m, and was instrumental in Mikel Arteta's team taking the Premier League for the first time in 22 years last season. He is on the 30-man Ballon d'Or shortlist.
Analysis: put Kane and Rice alongside McTominay and a theme appears. Ten Hag's grievance is not simply that United chose differently, but that he was absent when the choices were made. He says he stayed out of the financial side, and wanted mature, accountable players to steer the young signings, naming Kane, Rice and Bruno Fernandes as that kind of figure. Then again, a manager's wish list is not a recruitment strategy, and we hear nothing from those who turned him down.
Ronaldo and the "Madrid connection"
His harshest words target Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he inherited. He says he travelled to Portugal to set out his plans ahead of taking the job, and that Ronaldo "let the team down, and he let me down". Ten Hag alleges that Ronaldo withdrew from training sessions, failed to lift his heart rate to the required level when he did take part, and finished just two of the three laps of the run Ten Hag ordered following the 4-0 loss at Brentford in August 2022. He also says Ronaldo urged team-mates to conserve their legs in training.
The Athletic passed the comments to Ronaldo's representative and had received no response by publication. Keep that gap in mind when judging the account.
Ten Hag then widens the argument, describing a "Madrid connection" of Ronaldo, Casemiro and Raphael Varane that, he believes, made players powerful and eager to decide matters themselves. The three won 14 Champions Leagues between them at Real Madrid. To his mind, that did not fit United's stage of development; the leadership wanted attacking, dynamic football and those players wanted to play in the way that suited themselves. He refuses to discuss the specifics of Lisandro Martinez, who was fined internally for comments after the 2-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid last week and then made available for selection immediately.
Sacked with the cups still alive
The dismissal came on 28 October 2024, a day after a 2-1 loss to West Ham. United sat 14th with 11 points from nine games. Ten Hag calls the timing "quite weird", pointing out that United remained in every cup competition and that, in his view, the data said the team were good. He accepts that two games went badly, the 3-0 home defeats by Liverpool and Spurs.
He argues that play was getting better and the process ought to have been left to run. He also says he retained the dressing room, while granting that others "can say differently". The interview never tests that, and a 14th-place position sits awkwardly with the picture of an evidently healthy side.
He also raises the takeover. Sir Jim Ratcliffe's investment was announced on 24 December 2023, and Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth, Christopher Vivell and Jason Wilcox came in at different points during 2024. Ten Hag says the process brought "noise, uncertainty with the people, and disruptions". After a first meeting at Carrington he recalls talk of the manager becoming head coach inside a new structure, and then silence. "With them there was no communication," he says.
What he says about United now
Ten Hag now works as technical director of FC Twente, the team he supported as a boy, and says he still wants United to do well. On the current manager, Michael Carrick, he is emphatic: sacking him is "100 per cent not" the answer, even though supporters will call for it if results fail to pick up. He points to Carrick's showing at Middlesbrough and last season, and urges patience.
There is some irony in a sacked manager asking for patience on another's behalf. Yet it follows from his thesis, that leadership, strategy, structure and time all have to be present together. Whether United's leaders accept he ever had any of those is another question, and the first part of the interview does not hear from them.
Frequently Asked Questions
He says he was promised loyalty, backing and communication after the Ibiza talks, and that these were not kept. His main example is the sale of Scott McTominay, which he says went against what was agreed.
By his own account, yes. He says he told the club in 2023 he wanted only one player and that he fought for Kane, but was told no. He says he does not know how the decision was made.
He says Ronaldo let the team down, skipped training and did not meet fitness and running standards. The Athletic put the comments to Ronaldo's representative and had no reply at publication.
No. He says dismissing Carrick is "100 per cent not" the solution and that he should be allowed to work through his process.
Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: Sky Sports' original report.
