The Manchester United squad were split over their views on the captaincy last term as Cristiano Ronaldo 's presence challenged Harry Maguire.
The centre-half was handed the armband early in his career at Old Trafford following his mega money move from Leicester City in 2019. Maguire, in his first full season as captain, had led the Red Devils to a second place finish before they added Ronaldo in a summer recruitment drive 12 months ago.
Ronaldo had been skipper at Real Madrid and Juventus in the past whilst he also dons the armband for his national side. United though stuck by their man, but as their season struggles continued more internal issues began to unravel, with the squad far from agreement on who should be their skipper, reports the BBC.
That left Maguire less than impressed and he remained determined to retain the armband, despite his own personal performances coming in for criticism. A change in the dugout could mean a change of leader with Ronaldo set to remain at Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag, the man now making the calls, gave no guarantees that Maguire would still be the captain when he was quizzed at his opening press conference. He said: “I have to repeat: next season is a different season. I think he did a great job, he is a great player. He achieved already a lot. A really good contribution to Manchester United. So I am looking forward to working with him.”
Gary Neville has confessed that the presence and body language of Ronaldo has "undermined" Maguire and admits there is an issue. He said on the Overlap : "I thought last year Maguire was growing and emerging as the captain of the team. There is no doubt, the introduction of Cristiano into the club has meant that he feels inferior. Maguire will think 'that's Ronaldo, he's captain of his country, he wins tournaments'."
Have Your Say! Who should be Man Utd's captain? Tell us what you think here.
Ralf Rangnick, who was in interim charge and chose to stick by Maguire when the internal issues came to light, feels as though the playing group should select the man wearing the armband.
He said previously: "I strongly believe the captain should be elected by the team because he's called the team manager and we always did that, we always had a board of four or five players - we called it the ' Spielerrat ' [players' council] - elected by the players.
"The player with the highest amount of votes was the team captain at the end. That was how I did it. I know a lot of head coaches don't do it that way. That's what I would do if I was still the manager next season but in the end I'm not. This is something that Erik [ten Hag] will have to decide."
