Ronaldo goes above Ten Hag’s head by demanding signings
FT Desk
- Updated: 16 Aug 2022 10:19 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo is among at least three Manchester United players who have gone above Erik ten Hag’s head to demand new signings.
That is according to Talksport’s Anil Kandola, who claims that Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford have gone directly to the Manchester United board demanding that significant transfers are made imminently.
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There were big hopes for Man Utd going into the 2022-23 season following the appointment of Ten Hag as the club’s new manager.
However, the Red Devils have endured a disastrous start to the season, losing both of their opening matches to teams who are expected to be fighting against relegation.
United lost their opening match of the campaign, 2-1 at home to Brighton. They then followed that up last weekend with a humiliating 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Brentford.
Man Utd's underwhelming transfer market
One of the reasons for this terrible start has been Man Utd’s rather underwhelming transfer market so far.
United have signed only four players, with two of these being free transfers in the form of Christian Eriksen and Under-21 player-coach Tom Huddlestone.
The other two signings came from the Eredevisie with Lisandro Martinez arriving from Ajax and Tyrell Malacia from Feyenoord. The former has struggled so far at centre-back, while the latter is expected to be more of a back-up to Luke Shaw at left-back.
This has prompted Ronaldo, Bruno and Rashford – among others – to go above Ten Hag’s head and demand action in the transfer market.
Just how well this will go down with Ten Hag remains to be seen, given his authority has already been challenged numerous times by Ronaldo in recent weeks.
The Portuguese superstar failed to travel with the squad on their pre-season tour for family reasons, went home at half-time in the friendly against Rayo Vallecano and has generally sulked so far this season.
United are in negotiations to sign Adrien Rabiot from Juventus, while their hopes of buying Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona appear low.
