Piers Morgan attempted to defend Cristiano Ronaldo after he took aim at Erik ten Hag - but was left with egg on his face.
Manchester United megastar Ronaldo hit out at Red Devils manager Ten Hag during an explosive interview with Morgan, declaring that he has no "respect" for his boss and feels "betrayed," which surely spells the end of his tumultuous second stint at Old Trafford. Fans and pundits alike have criticised the 37-year-old striker for his comments, prompting Morgan to haplessly leap to his defence.
The presenter says that he was approached by an unhappy Ronaldo - who still wants to leave United - to conduct the interview, which airs later this week. "There's one insight which comes out from the interview which is very glaring about Ten Hag's way of handling Ronaldo which has been so disrespectful," Morgan began on talkSPORT after snippets were released on Sunday evening.
"When they were getting hammered by Manchester City, [Ten Hag] never brought him on and when he was asked why he kept making him warm-up and not bring him on, he said he didn't want to disrespect him.
"Then what happens a couple of weeks later, they play Tottenham, they're losing again and he orders him again to come on with three minutes to go. This is the same manager just weeks ago that said he didn't want to do that to him because he didn't want to disrespect a guy who is one of the greatest to play the game.
"You can't have it both ways for Ten Hag, it's either disrespectful to do that or you don't. Ronaldo admits he shouldn't admit what he did at the Tottenham game, he admits he apologised to his teammates but he's not sorry for refusing to go on to Ten Hag because he believes Ten Hag was saying the complete opposite two weeks before."
There's one glaring issue with Morgan's defence - United weren't losing to Tottenham. They were actually leading 2-0 with three minutes to go. Ronaldo refused to come on as a substitute at Ten Hag's request, proceeding to storm down the tunnel while the match was still being played and leave Old Trafford before his teammates had even got back into the dressing room after full-time.
Ten Hag subsequently left the five-time Ballon d'Or winner out of the squad to face Chelsea four days later, as United chiefs slapped him with a fine in the region of £1million. Ronaldo apologised to his teammates for his behaviour, but isn't sorry for his manager.
Have your say! Should Ronaldo ever play for Man Utd again? Give us your verdict in the comments section.
"I don't have respect for him because he doesn't show respect for me," the Portugal captain - who's set to compete at his fifth World Cup next week - told Piers Morgan Uncensored on TalkTV, via The Sun. "If you don't have respect for me, I'm never gonna have respect for you."
Some members of the Red Devils squad are already braced for Ronaldo's imminent departure, according to the Daily Telegraph, with Ten Hag set to hold crunch talks on Monday to decide his No.7's future. The Dutch tactician - who Ronaldo claims is trying to force him out of the club - will speak to chief executive Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough, with co-owner Joel Glazer also in dialogue.
