Former Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag has revealed that he had a strained relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo at times during his reign, who "let the team down" in his second stint at Old Trafford.
The former Ajax boss took over at Old Trafford in 2022 and was dismissed in 2024. Since then, his successor Ruben Amorim has also left the club and Michael Carrick is now in charge.
Ronaldo made a sensational return to United -- where he had played for six years between 2003 and 2009 -- in 2021 but it all fell apart just over a year later when the ex-Real Madrid striker publicly criticised the club's hierarchy and management, leading to a mutual termination of his contract.
Ten Hag and Ronaldo appeared to fall out before Ronaldo left United.
In an interview with The Athletic, Ten Hag has said that Ronaldo pulled out of training sessions and did not raise his heart rate to the required level when training.
Ten Hag claims that Ronaldo did not complete all of the scheduled laps that United players were made to run after their calamitous 4-0 loss to Brentford.
"He let the team down, and he let me down, because we planned with him. I flew out to Portugal to speak with him about what I was aiming for before I came to United," Ten Hag said.
"Obviously, he's one of the best in football history. I respected him a lot. But at that time, as a manager, I had to make a rational decision and keep the players I admire in."
Ten Hag added: "I confronted him [...] Many times I say, 'Ronnie, everyone wants to work for you to bring you in the right position, but if you can't bring yourself in the box, you can't score.' He was not capable to do this.
"It's the wrong idea to put this to me that I expected him to do the pressing, that he's exhausted. But he couldn't. He ran neither in possession nor out of possession. The reason was because he didn't prepare himself.
"Every top team has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team.
"He was telling the players, 'Save your legs at the training.' I understand it when you are top fit; you have sessions, you can save the legs. But first you have to train yourself to get into the right fitness levels."
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Ten Hag also said that he felt United "wasn't the highest priority" for some players.
Ronaldo was suspended for 30 days on Monday by the Portuguese Football Federation after his walkout on the national team during the international break.
He was also fined €255 ($285.90) but he has said that he is available to play for Portugal should be called up again in the future.
Ten Hag is now the technical director of Dutch side Twente.
