Erik Ten Hag gives sensational FA Cup final day interview as he slams Man United fans for having ‘no sense of reality’ amid 11-year title drought… and insists INEOS want to build WITH him in charge

Erik ten Hag has hit out at Manchester United fans for having ‘no sense of reality’ during their 11-year title drought in an incendiary interview on the day of the club’s FA Cup final against Manchester City.

The embattled manager is believed to be heading for the exit at Old Trafford regardless of whether his side triumph at Wembley on Saturday against their crosstown rivals after two seasons in charge of the Manchester club.

Ten Hag is defiant in his stance that he remains in the plans of Man United’s new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team since the petrochemical billionaire took control of the football operations in February.

But under the Dutchman the club has fallen to their worst ever Premier League finish in eighth place, with European football next season hinging on Saturday’s outcome.

In conversation with Dutch outlet VITen Hag emphasized that the club’s ambitions were too high for the reality of the current situation.

“Manchester United last won the competition in 2013, eleven years ago,” Ten Hag began. ‘But they still expect us to win every game and be at the top at the same time.

‘This club is not ready for that.

‘We were supposed to build something and last year we took the first steps, but then you find out how big this club is and that no one is ever satisfied.

‘Within the club people were happy, but outside the club there was a fuss saying that I had only won the Carabao Cup, lost the FA Cup final and finished 3rd.

If critics expected much more from Ten Hag’s team, the head coach stated that ‘you have no sense of reality’, because ‘other clubs had a much better team’ than his United team.

Ten Hag was also brutally realistic about the 2023-2024 campaign, adding: “Let me be clear. It’s been bad. It was damned.”

But the manager insisted: ‘Despite everything we are going to play an FA Cup final.’

Ten Hag suggested that his club was an easy target for belligerent pundits, and that this had been a factor in a decline at the club and a negative perception of his role in Man United’s poor form.

Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes – all former Man United players – have been outspokenly critical of the side at various points during the club’s uneven season, with Ten Hag previously lashing out at pundits and fans, calling out up to ‘patience’. ‘ while the team under him continues its process.

He had stronger words on Saturday, saying his United side were ‘easy prey’.

“The experts in England want to score, they want to show that they are worth the money, and for that Manchester United are easy prey,” said Ten Hag.

‘It is the biggest club in England and possibly in the world. The club is loved or hated, there is no in between.

“So when things go bad, they all start talking and using really big words. All this negativity from these so-called experts who do not have the ability to analyze anything with facts but prefer to attack people to make themselves look better.

‘And these are the same people who patted me on the back last year. Last year I could walk on water, this year I am the worst manager in the Premier League.’

The club’s problems are based on an enormous number of injuries, a subject that Ten Hag further mentioned.

“The injuries are really crazy,” Ten Hag told the Dutch newspaper. ‘Not long ago I had to start my 15th different central defender duo of the season.

‘I’ve had 33 different lines of defense this season. Sofyan Amrabat had to play as a left back four times. We’ve had injuries all over the field.

‘Casemiro has been out for a long time. Rasmus Hojlund, the striker we bought, had three injuries and I could go on. This is the core story of our season.

“Tyrell Malacia has not played a minute of football this season,” Ten Hag continued. ‘He never even spent a moment on the training pitch. We signed him as our backup to Luke Shaw.

Speaking about the England defender, Ten Hag sharply recalled the player’s injuries and emphasized: ‘Luke Shaw is the best left back in the world. This man is so good.

‘But he suffered a terrible injury at the start of his career and that means he will never be able to play 60 games a season.’

But the manager was full of plans for next season and was optimistic about his continued presence in the dugout, he said, due to discussions with INEOS itself.

“We need to attract an extra striker this summer,” Ten Hag said about his decision to reshape the selection during the coming transfer period. ‘And if we can sign another central midfielder and a replacement for Varane, things look good again.

‘If the team stays fit, we can try to go for the top four again.’

Ten Hag added that Ratcliffe and Co want to ‘change everything’, and ‘rebuild them together with (him)’.

“This is what they told me directly,” he emphasized. ‘INEOS will change things at the club and certain projects have already started. Carrington will be completely destroyed, a new training ground will be built’.

Despite Ten Hag’s confident zeal, Man United are believed to view both Thomas Tuchel and Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna as serious candidates to take charge of the club next season.

Outside the subject of Man United, Ten Hag had a word for his former director of football at Ajax, Marc Overmars.

The former Dutch international resigned from Amsterdam in February 2022 after admitting ‘unacceptable’ behavior after it emerged within the club that he had sent inappropriate messages and photos to several women who worked there.

But amid the Dutch giants’ seismic shift away from Eredivisie dominance in recent seasons, Ten Hag offered a full defense of the disgraced club chief.

“I maintain that I find it a shame the way Marc Overmars has been treated,” said Ten Hag. ‘The departure of Marc Overmars killed Ajax at the time.

‘And from a club perspective it was really stupid to throw him under the bus straight away.

‘Overmars was the connecting factor within the club. He did not write a single letter on paper, but every outgoing and incoming line was created by him. He was smart, he had strategic insight. When they lost him, everything collapsed.”

Overmars subsequently became director of football at Belgian side Royal Antwerp, but was forced to step back in January when his ban from Dutch football, which was handed out in November 2023, was extended worldwide.

The 51-year-old lost his appeal to have his one-year suspension overturned in February.