Was Ten Hag properly backed at Man Utd? | Spending under the Dutchman analysed
Sky Sports News reviews Ten Hag's Manchester United tenure: interview claims and spending analysis
The segment first reviews Erik ten Hag's claims in The Athletic interview, including broken promises, a toxic culture and Cristiano Ronaldo letting the team down; a guest then criticises the timing and lack of accountability. Adam Binnie uses spending data to argue Ten Hag was backed, questions whether some targets were realistic, and says United's failure to land them is a worrying sign of their standing in the football hierarchy.
- Ronaldo let the team and him down by not running or preparing properly. — He says Ronaldo did not prepare himself and that a top player must work for the team.
- Manchester United's hierarchy broke promises and the club had a toxic culture, which led to his eventual sacking. — In his interview with The Athletic, he framed broken promises and a toxic environment as central to his tenure and exit.
- Ten Hag's timing is poor and his comments feel random; he lacks accountability for a job not done well. — United and Michael Carrick are already dealing with noise such as Martinez speaking out, and Ten Hag is adding to it rather than owning his poor spell.
- United are not far from being a good side, but results must come because the pressure is mounting. — They have only two wins in all competitions this season; Carrick struggled this year despite a strong end to last season, and expectations at United are to win and compete near the top.
- Ten Hag was not denied backing at United. — United spent £616.8m under him, second among Premier League ever-presents and more than any United manager in the past 10 years.
- It is questionable whether those five targets were realistic in the first place. — Kane and Declan Rice moved in the 2023 summer window, when United's total spend was below their combined cost, while other targets such as Welbeck moved after Ten Hag had left.
- Ten Hag's big-money signings produced few real hits and few are still at the club, and they were not of the same quality as the five targets. — Looking through the fees and the players still remaining shows how little United got for the £600m-plus outlay compared with the names Ten Hag wanted.
- United's failure to land those top targets is a worrying sign of where they now stand in the football food chain. — Even with money available they could not get the players; timing may excuse Ten Hag, but for United it points to a deeper decline.
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Transcript
But first this hour, former Manchester United manager Eric Tenhog has claimed there were broken promises and a toxic culture during his time at Old Trafford in an interview with The Athletic. >> Yeah. Tenhog also accused Cristiano Ronaldo of pulling out of training sessions during his second spell at the club. Now Tenhog is now the technical director at Fi20ente. He won two trophies during his time at Manchester United and was sacked in October 2024. His relationship with Ronaldo came under extreme scrutiny and today he's claimed Ronaldo didn't run and didn't prepare properly. >> Let's take a look at what Tenhag said. Then he let the team down and he let me down because we planned with him. I flew out to Portugal to speak with him about what I was aiming for before I came to United. Obviously, he's one of the best in football history. I respected him a lot but at that time as a manager I had to make a rational decision and keep the players I admire in. He ran neither in possession nor out of possession. The reason was because he didn't prepare himself. Every top team has to embrace the top player but the top player has to work for the team. >> Now here are the areas Eric Tenhog addressed during that wide-ranging interview with the athletics Lori Witwell. discussed how the club's hierarchy had in his opinion broken promises that led to his eventual sacking. The toxic culture and what it was like managing players such as Marcus Rashford, Casemiro and Raphael Varane also came up and as we mentioned how he felt Cristiano Ronaldo let the team down. He also discussed his desire to sign Harry Kane and Declan Rice and he has called on the club to stick by Michael Carrick. >> Steven, how do you think the Manchester United hierarchy are going to be feeling about these comments, especially after what happened with Landro Martinez as well? >> The timing is really bad for Manchester United and Michael Carrick who's who's having to deal with this. He's taking the brunt of all of this. He'll be asked the questions shortly on air. He just wants to focus on the team on the pitch and I feel the hierarchy wanted to do the same. There's so much noise coming out of Manchester United Martinez speaking out last week, Dio with social media message and now Tenhog I don't know these comments for me feel random. I I feel that there's a real lack of accountability on Eric Tenhog's part for a job not very well done during his time at Manchester United >> and the timing I guess as well with Manchester United on the pitch. It's two wins in all competitions so far this season. It's not the best start either, is it? >> No, the formats have been great. I'm I'm a big fan of Michael Carrick. I think he he had an excellent end to last season. This year, he struggled. I think that they're not too far away from being a good side, but the results need to come cuz the pressure is mounting. There's pressure at every team in the Premier League, but especially at Manchester United, people are expecting wins. They're expecting them to be competing at the top end of the table. They're they're a little bit away from that right now. >> Yeah, they certainly are. Lots of detail in that interview with Eric Tenhog. And Adam Biny has been taking a closer look at the five unnamed players who didn't sign for Manchester United. And here are those five named players. Frankie Dong, Harry Kane, Declan Rice. We've got Brian Brobby and Danny Wellbeck as well. What five aside team that is there? Dares Chef the only one missing from an alltimer of a six aside set it up as well. So this has got the question that we all want to know. Why? Why on earth did these five players who Ericenhang wanted to sign for Manchester United not sign for the football club? Well, the first thing to say is it certainly wasn't for a lack of backing. Here's a look at Manchester United's total spending during Eric Hags time at the club compared to other Premier League ever presents. You can see the Manchester United second here 616.8 million. Chelsea absolutely blowing everyone out of the water on 1.3 billion. So clearly they can still compete with the top top teams at the top of the Premier League in terms of spending. And when you compare that actually with other Manchester United managers, Eric Tenhag has spent more than any Manchester United manager over the past 10 years. So what we've got here is a graph from the beginning of the 201617 season all the way to the current day. And this and this is split between summer and winter transfer windows. You can see the winter transfer windows are in the red here, summer in the blue. The reason we've done that for you is because if you go all the way over to the 2425 uh season, Edictton Hag didn't get to the January transfer window. So, you can ignore this red part here at the top. So, really for him, you've got to consider these three or two in a bit transfer windows, which equates to over 600 million pounds, way more than any of those other four Manchester United managers in this 10-year period as well. So, the money was there, but here is what those five named targets eventually went for. Frankie Dong, of course, didn't go anywhere. He's still at Barcelona, Declan Rice for just over 100 million, Harry Kane for £100 million, Danny Welbewick for just £5 million this summer, and Brian Broy for 21.7 million. So, as Cavy actually brought up on the show earlier in this, you've really got to ask the question, were any of these really realistic anyways? Because if you look at the timing of when these players then eventually moved on or in Dong's case didn't move at all, maybe Manchester United couldn't get them at the time that they did. Deco Nice and Harry Kane both moved in the 2023 summer window. Manchester United's total spend for that window was below the combined total of these two players as well. Danny Welbeck of course moved this summer. Uh Brian Broby last summer. Edton Hag was no longer the Manchester United manager when those two deals were done as well. So, if it wasn't to do with the finances, we really want to try and uncover what it really was about cuz Tenhag made it clear in that interview that he wasn't the one leading these negotiations. At different points, he named former chief executive Richard Arnold. They named ex- football director John Myrtzer. The Glazers were also mentioned. Then technical director Darren Fletcher was also in that article by The Athletic. But were these players ever really going to come to Manchester United? That's the question we are now asking. Here's what they actually ended up with instead. Here's what that 600 million plus was spent on by Eric Tenhagen. If you look through the fees paid for these players and look at the equating names on this left hand side, not many big hits for Eric Tenhagen. Crucially, not many players that are actually still left at the football club. Clearly these players not of the same quality of those five named in that interview with the Athletic. So perhaps as he mentioned the timing just wasn't quite right for Tenhag, but for United maybe a more worrying indication of where they find themselves in the football food changes now.