@FootynewsTen Hag went on ESPN and basically laid out why the Ronaldo situation at Manchester United was never going to work. His framing: every great team welcomes its star, but the star has to put in the work for the team too. And in his view that was exactly where things broke with CR7. The players around him wanted to do the running for him, they admired him, but per Ten Hag for seven or eight years Ronaldo couldn't return that anymore. The sharper part of the claim is that the drive slipped: he stopped pushing himself to the max in training and couldn't hold the physical standard you need to stay at the top. Then Ten Hag flipped it into praise for Real Madrid, saying they're smart about letting big names go at the right moment and pointing at Ronaldo's 2018 exit as the example. Which is a wild thing to say in the same breath as calling him one of the greatest ever and admitting we all loved watching him. Both things can sit there, I guess. Still a lot to unpack 🍪 #ErikTenHag #CristianoRonaldo

@FootynewsTen Hag went on ESPN and basically laid out why the Ronaldo situation at Manchester United was never going to work. His framing: every great team welcomes its star, but the star has to put in the work for the team too. And in his view that was exactly where things broke with CR7. The players around him wanted to do the running for him, they admired him, but per Ten Hag for seven or eight years Ronaldo couldn't return that anymore. The sharper part of the claim is that the drive slipped: he stopped pushing himself to the max in training and couldn't hold the physical standard you need to stay at the top. Then Ten Hag flipped it into praise for Real Madrid, saying they're smart about letting big names go at the right moment and pointing at Ronaldo's 2018 exit as the example. Which is a wild thing to say in the same breath as calling him one of the greatest ever and admitting we all loved watching him. Both things can sit there, I guess. Still a lot to unpack 🍪 #ErikTenHag #CristianoRonaldo