Piers Morgan calls Ten Hag a ‘complete idiot’ over Ronaldo as Man Utd boss is sent fresh Rangnick warning

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has once again been destroyed by Piers Morgan following the November 2022 departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, with the controversial journalist claiming the Dutchman is “talking gibberish” – while Ralf Rangnick reckons he has also been proved right over claims he made about the Red Devils squad needing “open-heart surgery”.

It’s not been a great start to the season for Manchester United, who squeeked a win over Fulham in their Premier League opener but then found themselves beaten at Brighton in their second game before being embarrassed 3-0 by Arne Slot’s Liverpool just before the international break. That has continued to heap pressure on the shoulders of Ten Hag, who has once again found himself the subject of speculation that he could be facing the sack if immediate improvements are not made.

Indeed, having come eighth in the Premier League last season – their lowest-ever position finish in the competition since its inception in 1992 – Ten Hag knows he needs to propel his team back into the top four this season at the absolute minimum.

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And having been given a fresh contract – albeit only by another season – to turn things around, together with the addition of five big-name new signings over the summer – expectations remain extremely high at Old Trafford.

While defensively United still have improvements to make – having shipped five goals in their opening three games so far – the Red Devils also look a little toothless in attack.

And despite adding Joshua Zirkzee to their attack this summer for a fee of £36.5m (€42.5m / $47.8m), United have so far only scored two goals in their 270 minutes of action so far, to leave the club down in 14th in the embryonic table and with a goal difference of minus three already.

Piers Morgan tears into Ten Hag over Ronaldo exit

With United struggling in front of goal, the club’s decision to push veteran forward Ronaldo out the door back in November 2022 following his public criticism of the club in an TV interview with Morgan, has once again been shoved back into the limelight.

Ronaldo turns the ripe old age of 40 in February, but shows no signs of letting up having scored his 132nd international goal of his career on Sunday night in a 2-1 Nations League win over Scotland at the Estadio da Luz.

And with 769 goals to his name at club level, would anyone back against the player reaching 1,000 career goals before he eventually calls it quits!

In the wake of Sunday night’s winner, Morgan has reignited his feud with Ten Hag over the decision by United to let Ronaldo leave, with many feeling the veteran star’s public condemnation of the club resulted off the back of a series of disagreements with the Dutchman.

Appearing as a guest on talkSPORT, Morgan did not hold back.

“The idea that anyone thinks after watching the last two Portugal games that Ronaldo is finished or that somehow he’s taken the easy gravy train in Saudi Arabia and therefore he can’t be taken seriously as a player,” Morgan began.

“All this bull I’ve been hearing about it like, come on, look at the guy as Roy Keane, who I think is one of the most perceptive eyes for footballers in the world.

“As he said this week, there is no better finisher than Cristiano Ronaldo still out there as he’s shown.

“Last night he hit the post, then he scored. He had a disappointing Euros, but certainly Portugal did collectively. I don’t think he got the service he should have got.

“But the truth is Ronaldo remains one of the most lethal finishers in world football.”

Ten Hag branded ‘complete idiot’

When asked why Man Utd let him go if that really was the case, Morgan turned the heat on the United manager.

“Because Ten Hag is a complete idiot,” he said. “I’m sorry, he is. He has been since he went there, right? He talks in complete gibberish.

“He’s now banging on about Harry Potter or something. Ten Hag is everything Ronaldo told me he was in that interview, which led to him leaving United.

“The biggest problem with Ten Hag, he’s like that bossy little school teacher you get who doesn’t know how to handle supreme academic talent.”

Morgan also feels there is a string of top United managers who have been unable to handle their top talents, with Jadon Sancho the latest to leave after a falling out with Ten Hag.

He continued: “So you look at the players he’s been unable to handle at United. Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford. It’s all the top players.

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“He can handle the lesser rung. He can handle the guys he brings in from Ajax who’ve never been on the big world stage, but he cannot handle top players.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this because it’s a miracle, but they’ve actually gotten worse than they were last season.

“So Cristiano Ronaldo, had he stayed at Manchester United, would have been immeasurably better than any of the strikers they’ve currently got as he’s proving for Portugal

“The guys, the greatest that has ever played the game, the greatest that will ever play the game. That’s why he’s the number one scorer. That’s why he’ll get to a thousand goals.”

Rangnick repeats Man Utd squad warning

Former United interim boss Rangnick, meanwhile, feels he has been proven right over his summer 2022 warning to the Red Devils over the state of their squad.

The German coach took charge of United from December 2021 until May 2022 following the dismissal of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and had initially been expected to remain in a sports director role.

However, the appointment of Ten Hag, together with a warning he had sent United about the state of their squad meant the two parties agreed to go in their separate directions.

But upon leaving the club, Rangnick, who took charge of 29 games but having won just 11 of them, giving him a poor 37.93% win record, said of the issues: “You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are.

“Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things.

“In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart. If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.”

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Since then, Ten Hag has steered United to both Carabao Cup and FA Cup glory, though they have failed to close the gap on four-time reigning Premier League champions Manchester City, finishing a distant 31 points adrift of their neighbours last season.

Asked about those comments, Rangnick, now the boss of Austria, told TV2: “I  probably made that statement when the season was almost over about two years ago. It is probably only two or three weeks since Erik ten Hag was asked the same thing.

“Then he said that I was right in my analysis. I don’t know how many players they have signed since, but it looks like I was right.”

Since those comments were made, United have signed a total of 20 players, including loan deals.