Newcastle and Premier League legend Alan Shearer has expressed his shock that Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag chose to take on a punditry role following his criticism of the profession.
Ten Hag was a surprise guest on Dutch TV channel’s NOS on Sunday night as he provided expert analysis on England’s Euro 2024 clash with Serbia. During the broadcast, the Dutchman criticised Gareth Southgate’s cautious approach.
“England were playing very passive,” he said. “I actually saw them moving backwards, they kept Serbia coming at them.
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“It’s the vision of the manager [Southgate]. England will take a 1-0 lead, then he [Southgate] decides to start gambling with making his team compact and relying on moments for the remaining minutes of the game.”
At the FA Cup final, Shearer and Ten Hag had a fiery debate pitchside at Wembley Stadium when the United boss insinuated both his team and himself had been unfairly treated by the media and pundits. The former Newcastle man argued that this was due to the standard of performances this season.
Defending his point further, Shearer added on The Rest is Football: “He’s entitled to have a pop back because he’s been criticised at times and I think rightly so, because his team have been miles off it. They’ve been poor.
“So for all of those things we’ve had to criticise them this season. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be doing our job.
“But he’s entitled to have the hump with people who he feels are being unfair, but I felt I was well within my rights [to say what I said].”
Now after hearing that Ten Hag had become a pundit, Shearer shared with Betfair his concise thoughts on the matter. “Considering he had a bit of a pop at pundits after the FA Cup final, it was really interesting to see him being a pundit himself on television recently,” he said.
During his stint on the England vs Serbia coverage, Ten Hag explained how he discovered that he would be remaining at Old Trafford and that United had informed him they had spoken to Thomas Tuchel about potentially replacing him. Despite their recent clashes, Shearer explained how he had sympathy for Ten Hag based on how he has been treated.
“But what a mess it’s been. How kind of Man United to go to Ibiza and inform him that he’s still wanted as the manager, and then tell him that they’ve even spoken to other candidates,” he continued.
“It’s just a bizarre situation, it’s not how things should be done in football. If you are going to speak to other managers then speak to them, but keep it in-house, you can’t let the public know.”