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Piers Morgan has hit back at Erik ten Hag, once again jumping to the defense of his friend Cristiano Ronaldo.
Responding publicly to the interview conducted last month that ended Ronaldo’s Manchester United career, Ten Hag, among other lines, explained why he rarely chose not to use Portuguese.
‘Last year he scored 24 goals, right? So what does this team need? We need goals. Yes, potentially (get a new contract), but it’s theoretical. When he’s in good shape, he’s a good player and he could help us recover and achieve the goals we have, that’s pretty clear, but it wasn’t,” he explained.
Piers Morgan labeled Erik ten Hag a ‘clown’ after his comments in response to the interview.
‘I have to make the decisions if the player is not playing. I have to choose the best team in favor of the club and the team. Those are the decisions I have to make and it doesn’t matter who it is.
Morgan responded to the Dutchman on Twitter, writing: “When he’s in good shape, he’s a good player.” It’s hard to imagine why Ronaldo felt disrespected by this clown, right?
The latest contention risks emerge even more from an interview that pre-World Cup dominated both the front and back covers.
The announcer defended his friend Ronaldo in the face of criticism from his ex-manager
Ronaldo conducted an explosive interview with Morgan last month in which he took aim at Ten Hag, Manchester United and various other figures.
After becoming increasingly frustrated with his supporting role under Ten Hag, Ronaldo conducted a revealing interview with Morgan on TalkTV. Broadcast over two nights, the Portuguese made a series of explosive claims including: he felt betrayed by the club, hasn’t moved on since Sir Alex Ferguson left and claimed former teammates Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville only criticized him to boost their own profiles.
As well as his comments on Rooney and Neville, Ronaldo also took aim at Ten Hag, whose reign has coincided with the all-out burning of his relationship with the club.
“I don’t respect him because he doesn’t show respect for me,” Ronaldo told Morgan.
“Hearing how ex-colleagues or teammates criticize you, when they only see one point of view. It’s easy,” he said of criticism from the likes of Rooney and Neville.
‘It’s easy to criticize, I don’t know if you have a job on television that they should criticize to be more famous. I really don’t get it.
“It’s hard when you see the people who were in the locker room with you criticizing like that.”
‘It’s easy to criticize, I don’t know if you have a job on television that they should criticize to be more famous. I really don’t get it,” she added.
“It’s hard when you see the people who were in the locker room with you criticizing like that.”
The Portuguese also said he was ‘surprised’ by the criticism of Wayne Rooney in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Ten Hag himself criticized Ronaldo for allegedly not being honest about his motives in the summer, with the Dutchman claiming the player did not tell him he wanted to leave the club.
Ten Hag was told that Ronaldo did not have the decency to tell the manager his intentions.
‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Ten Hag. ‘In the summer we had a talk. He came in and said: “I’ll 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. He never told me: “I want to leave.”
Ten Hag hinted that there was no question about what to do with Ronaldo after the interview.
‘I think that the interview, as a club, you cannot accept. There will be consequences. To take that step, he knew the consequences.
I’ve seen most of it, but not all of it. I think it became quite clear afterwards that he had to go,” added Ten Hag, who made the decision to terminate Ronaldo’s contract with chief executive Richard Arnold and director of football John Murtough six days after the interview aired. We didn’t have to discuss it. It was pretty clear. Richard, John, I, was (done).
“I think the club can only be successful and operate when all the decision makers are on one page and support each other.”