Finally, Erik Ten Hag breaks his silence on the termination of Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract by the Premier League club Manchester United by mutual consent.
The 37-year-old forward hasn’t seen a clear sky since his explosive interview with the British journalist Piers Morgan. He said he did not “respect” the United coach Erik Ten Hag. Ever since then, Ten Hag has not made any official statement regarding the matter.
A few weeks after the whole fiasco, it seems that Ten Hag has finally decided to break his silence on the entire Cristiano Ronaldo puddle he was surrounded with.
Erik Ten Hag breaks silence on Ronaldo
While speaking to the sources, Erik ten Hag said,
“I wanted him to stay from the first moment until now. He wanted to leave; it was quite clear. And when a player definitely doesn’t want to be in this club then he has to go.”
Ten Hag also admitted that he was utterly bewildered that Cristiano would even want to leave the club and that it was his first time hearing something like that from Ronaldo’s end.
‘Never told me he wanted to leave,” says Ten Hag
“The interview was the first time he said he wanted to leave,” said Ten Hag. “I think as a club you can’t accept that. There will be consequences. To make that step, [doing the interview] he knew the consequences. Before he never told me. During the season there was no transfer window, but until that moment he never told me ‘I want to leave’.”
Ten Hag also spoke of his last conversation with the Portuguese legend,
“In the summer we had one talk. He came in and said, ‘I will tell you in seven days if I want to stay’. Then he came back and said, ‘I want to stay’. Until that moment [the interview] I never heard anything. We wanted him to be part of our project, [for] him to contribute to Manchester United because he is a great player. He has such a great history, but it’s in the past and we have to look into the future.”
Ronaldo is now a free agent and is already attracting many potential buyers, including those from Saudi Arabia. After his performance in Qatar, he is likely to double the attractions in the form of offers in the upcoming January transfer window after the World cup ends.
