Cristiano Ronaldo has slammed Erik ten Hag's "excuses" and admitted his relationship with the Manchester United boss is "not good".
The Portuguese striker, 37, has let rip at his current club and Ten Hag over their treatment of him this season after accusing them of trying to force him out of Old Trafford. Ronaldo's decision to air his dirty laundry in a tell-all public interview with Piers Morgan looks to have brought the curtain down on his second spell at United in dramatic fashion.
But Ronaldo has pointed the finger of blame at his Dutch coach, who has used him only sparingly in his team this campaign despite the five-time Ballon d'Or winner finishing as United's top scorer last term. Speaking in his interview with Morgan on Talk TV, Ronaldo fumed: "The feeling he [Ten Hag] always mentioned to me, that I didn't need the pre-season so I should wait for my opportunity."
Ronaldo says he understood Ten Hag's point of view, but accused his manager of double standards when it came to dealing with other players. He went on to state United were "so bad the last five years" that Ten Hag had no choice but to undertake a complete overhaul of the team - or "clean the house", as Ronaldo put it.
However, Ronaldo feels Ten Hag used him missing pre-season as an ongoing excuse to leave him out of the team. "I really understand in the beginning because I didn't do the pre-season, I don't start to play," Ronaldo said. "But going more further than that, further than that. Other things happen that people don't know. And I'm not hiding that the empathy with the coach is not good. I'm honest.”
Ronaldo was left on the bench in the 6-2 thrashing by Manchester City despite United being four down at half time, only for Ten Hag to claim he didn't bring the striker on "out of respect". Fast forward two weeks and Ten Hag asked Ronaldo to enter the field with just three minutes remaining of the 2-0 win against Tottenham.
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The tensions between the pair clearly got too much for Ronaldo and boiled over as he refused to come on and stormed down the tunnel and out of the stadium - an incident which he has since apologised to his team-mates for and admits was a "mistake". Yet he still feels Ten Hag - who made Ronaldo captain for several games thereafter - was in the wrong for showing him a clear lack of respect.
“He doesn't respect [me] the way I should deserve [to be respected]. But it is what it is. This is why probably, the game against Tottenham, I left," Ronaldo said. Venting his anger at the decision against Man City, Ronaldo continued: "Excuses, I see as excuses. I saw many things that, I don't want to criticise him. He can have [a] different opinion than me.
"They choose the players that they think is better for the team. I respect that but excuses all the time you know; the excuses have short legs, cannot excuse all the time, which is things that don't make sense.
"Okay, you don't put me against Manchester City because of respect of your career and you want to put me three minutes against Tottenham. It doesn’t make sense…"
He added: "I think he did it on purpose because, for example, in a national team the other clubs, if the coach wants to put me [on for] five minutes, if someone [is] injured or if they really need me, I will help. But in that way I felt provoked not only because of that game, but before.”
Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored: 90 Minutes with Ronaldo at https://watch.talk.tv/ or www.youtube.com/piersmorganuncensored
