Erik ten Hag’s time at Manchester United has been marked by his fight with Cristiano Ronaldo and the fallout from it.
In his first season as manager of the Red Devils, the manager went up against the team’s biggest star and beat him. This showed that he was not an easy person to fool. With this in mind, some old comments from Edinson Cavani have come to light that might explain why Ten Hag was so eager to break up with Ronaldo.
Cavani said in May of last year that he thought his time at Old Trafford was limited after Ronaldo moved there. He seems to be saying that a manager feels forced to play the five-time Ballon d’Or winner whenever he joins a new club.
The Uruguayan said, “Knowing a little bit about the world of football these days, the first thing I did was call my brother, Walter Fernando Guglielmone, who is also his agent, and I told him, “Fernando, if this had happened a week ago, I would have asked you to find me another club.”
But I didn’t avoid playing with Cristiano Ronaldo because I didn’t want to. No. Because I got to know him and he is a great professional who knows what he wants, which is great for an athlete. But I know how things work now because I’ve been playing football for a long time. So, I talked to my brother about it ” It was more about knowing what was going on.
Not because I couldn’t do my job at Manchester, but because there are many things in football today that are different from how they were with other people or how they were years ago. And because it happened so quickly, I didn’t feel anything. I thought, We’ll play, and we’ll do our best.”
Cavani was one of the first people to feel the effects of Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford. The Uruguayan gave up his number seven shirt for the former Real Madrid player, which was a nice thing to do.
He left in the same summer that Ten Hag arrived, but Cavani may regret not staying since Ten Hag didn’t agree with the idea that Ronaldo has to start every game and play every minute.
On the other hand, Ronaldo only played 10 times in the Premier League while Ten Hag was in charge, and he never played the full 90 minutes more than three times.
The fact that United is doing so well even without Ronaldo may be the most surprising thing. Since he was let go, the Red Devils have been getting better and better. They are now third in the table, just five points behind the top spot.
Marcus Rashford has stepped up in place of the Portugal captain, and United finally seem to be on the right track as Ten Hag tries to bring them back to their former glory.
