Erik ten Hag has blasted Manchester United for failing to bring in Harry Kane and Declan Rice during his time at Old Trafford.
The Dutchman won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup during his three seasons in Manchester before being relieved of his duties in October 2024.
The former Ajax boss has now spoken out on some of the biggest incidents from his time at the club in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic.
Among the topics, ten Hag opened up on his falling out with Cristiano Ronaldo, accusing the legendary forward of letting him and the team down leading up to his acrimonious departure from the club in November 2022.
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16 players arrived at United during ten Hag’s tenure with many of them failing to meet expectations, including Rasmus Hojlund who was sold at a loss to Napoli in the summer. He arrived in Manchester in 2023 during a summer where United were initially eager to bring in a more experienced centre forward with Kane their leading target.
Kane, then aged 30, was still at Tottenham with just one year left on his contract with ten Hag desperate to sign him.
‘I said to them [the United board], “I want only one player — and you know who”.’
No deal was ever struck with ten Hag revealing he was kept in the dark by chief executive Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough before being told the move was not possible with Kane going on to join Bayern Munich.
‘I fought for it. I heard that he was very positive, but I never spoke with him about the issue,’ ten Hag said. ‘I don’t know how the decision process went with John, Richard, the Glazers.
‘They came to the conclusion. I don’t have the insights in the financials.’
In his first summer at the club, United pursued a move for Frenkie de Jong, agreeing a fee with Barcelona at one stage only for him to reject the club.
Ten Hag says he then shifted his focus to Declan Rice, who joined Arsenal for a club record £105m deal in the summer of 2023. The manager was again left feeling the club did not do enough to make the deal happen.
‘The issue was that West Ham didn’t want to let him go. I think we could have done more to test. We were on one page, they tried, but I don’t know how the process went. The point is, at United you need outstanding players.’
United missed out on two other centre forwards during ten Hag’s tenure. In 2022, ten Hag was eager to bring in Brian Brobbey to provide support for Ronaldo with the centre forward now starring for Sunderland. Two years later, a move to bring Danny Welbeck was explored but the Athletic report a changes at executive level meant there was never any formal offer made.
‘At first, not everyone was aligned,’ ten Hag said of the interest in Brobbey. ‘Then we convinced him, but then we were late, and already he was in a different process.’
On the Welbeck interest, he said: ‘For sure, we were in contact. Not me, often Darren (Fletcher, then United technical director). And he was very interested.’