Erik ten Hag has hit out at Manchester United fans for having ‘no sense of reality’ amid their 11-year title drought in an incendiary interview on the day of the club’s FA Cup final against Manchester City.
The embattled manager is believed to be heading for the exit at Old Trafford regardless of whether his side triumphs at Wembley on Saturday against their crosstown rivals after two season in charge at the Manchester club.
Ten Hag has been defiant in his stance that he remains in the plans of Man United‘s new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team since the petrochemicals billionaire took over the running of football operations in February.
But under the Dutchman, the club has faltered to its worst-ever Premier League finsh in eighth, and European football next term is dependent on Saturday’s outcome.
Speaking to Dutch outlet VI, Ten Hag stressed that the club’s aspirations were too high for the reality of its current straits.
Erik ten Hag has hit out at critics who do not have a realistic view of Man United’s expectations
The club has endured an uneven season which has seen them finish in their lowest-ever Premier League position
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) is believed to have already made the decision to sack Ten Hag whatever the outcome of Saturday’s FA Cup final
‘Manchester United won the league for the last time in 2013, 11 years ago,’ Ten Hag told journalist Freek Jansen. ‘But still they expect us to win every game while competing at the top.
‘This club is not ready for that.
‘We were supposed to start building something and we made the first steps last year, but then you find out how big this club is and that nobody is ever satisfied.
‘Within the club people were satisfied, but outside the club there was noise by saying I won only the Carabao Cup, lost the FA Cup Final and became 3rd.
If critics were to expect much more from Ten Hag’s side, then, the head coach offered that ‘you have no sense of reality,’ as ‘other clubs had a much better squad’ than his United side.
Ten Hag was also ruthlessly realistic about the 2023-24 campaign, adding: ‘Let me be clear. It has been bad. It has been c***.’
But, the manager insisted: ‘Despite everything, we are going to play an FA Cup final.’
Ten Hag went to suggest that his club was an easy target for belligerant pundits, and that this had been a factor in a downturn at the club and negative perception of his role in Man United’s poor form.
The club won its last Premier League title 11 years ago, the last act of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign
Ten Hag took aim at pundits (pictured: former Man United players and Sky Sports presenters Roy Keane and Gary Neville) for making United ‘easy prey’
Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane, Gary Neville, and Paul Scholes – all former Man United players – have been vocally critical of the side at various points during the club’s uneven season, and Ten Hag previously hit out at pundits and fans and called for ‘patience’ as the team continues its process under him.
He had stronger words on Saturday, saying that his United side were ‘easy prey’.
‘The pundits in England want to score, they want to show they are worth the money, and for that Manchester United is an easy prey,’ Ten Hag stated.
‘It’s the biggest club in England and possibly in the world. The club is either loved or hated, there is no in-between.
‘So when things go bad, they all start talking and talking with very big words. All this negativity from these so called experts who don’t have the capability to analyse something with facts, but who prefer to attack people to make themselves look better.
‘And these same people were the ones who gave me a pat on the back last year. Last year I was able to walk on water, this year I am the worst manager in the Premier League.’
At the root of the club’s issues have been an enormous amount of injuries, so severe, Ten Hag added, that one defender – Tyrell Malacia – hadn’t even stepped on the training pitch.
Malacia had previously been recruited as an understudy to England international Luke Shaw, who has also struggled for much of the season with persistent injury, further hampering Man United’s side.
The Dutchman pointed out that Tyrell Malacia has not even stepped on the training pitch due to the severity of his injury
Luke Shaw has been unavailable to the manager for much of Man United’ 2023-24 campaign
Rasmus Hojlund (centre) has also not always been fit as required by his Dutch manager
But the manager was full of plans for the following season, optimistic of his continued presence in the dugout, he said, because of discussions with INEOS themselves.
‘We need to sign an extra striker in the summer,’ Ten Hag said of his decision to reshape the squad during the upcoming transfer window. ‘And if we can sign another central midfielder and a replacement for Varane, things will look good again.
‘If the team remains fit we can try and aim for top four again.’
Ten Hag added that Ratcliffe and Co ‘want to change every thing’, and ‘they want to rebuild with (him)’.
‘This is what they told me directly,’ he stressed. ‘INEOS will change things in the club and certain projects have already started. Carrington will get be completely destroyed, a new training ground will come’.
For all of Ten Hag’s confident zeal, Man United are thought to be considering both Thomas Tuchel and Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna as serious candidates to take over at the club ahead next season.
Away from the subject of Man United, Ten Hag saved a word for his former director of football at Ajax, Marc Overmars.
The former Netherlands international quit his job in Amsterdam in February 2022 after admitting to ‘unacceptable’ behaviour after it emerged within the club that he had sent inappropriate messages and photographs to several women who worked there.
But amid the Dutch giants’ seismic shift away from Eredivisie dominance in recent seasons, Ten Hag offered a full-throated defence of the disgraced club chief.
Ratcliffe (right, with United majority owner Avram Glazer) is keen to make wholesale changes
But, insists Ten Hag, these changes that INEOS are looking to bring in will include his input
Ten Hag also offered a staunch defence of former Ajax chief Marc Overmars (left, in 2019)
‘I stand firm that I find it a disgrace the way Marc Overmars has been treated,’ Ten Hag said. ‘The departure of Marc Overmars killed Ajax at the time.
‘And from club perspective it was really stupid to throw him under the bus straight away.
‘Overmars was the binding factor within the club. He didn’t write a single letter on paper, but every outgoing and incoming line was created by him. He was smart, he had strategic insight. When they got rid of him, everything collapsed.’
Overmars went on to take over as director of football at Belgian side Royal Antwerp, but was forced to take a step back in January when his suspension from Dutch football doled out in November 2023 was extended globally.
The 51-year-old lost his appeal to overturn the one-year suspension in February.