Ten Hag says only one Man Utd manager has ‘got the players he wanted’ as he hits back at predecessor’s claims
ERIK TEN HAG has hit back at Jose Mourinho’s claims he was not backed by Manchester United chiefs by insisting the Portuguese manager is the only coach since Sir Alex Ferguson to get the players he wanted.
Mourinho, 61, had a two-and-a-half-year spell at Old Trafford from 2016 to 2018, winning the League Cup and Europa League.
Mourinho, sacked by Roma in January, spent £400million on 11 players during his time at the club, but recently claimed he did not have the “level of support” Ten Hag has been given since his arrival.
Ten Hag has spent around £380m since he came through the door in 2022 and has brought in the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Antony and Andre Onana from former club Ajax.
Now he has responded to Mourinho’s comments while calling for improvements to be made to his squad.
Speaking to ESPN Brasil, he said: “Apart from Mourinho, the manager didn’t get the players they wanted, and that is what you need.
“I am confident we will achieve our goals, but it is a tough competition [the Premier League]. It is not a two-horse race anymore.
“There are seven, eight who all go for the title, who all have very good squads.
“So, if you want to go to the title, you have to construct that squad.”
Last month, Mourinho had told The Telegraph: “My relationship with [former chief executive] Ed Woodward was good.
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“Good as in the personal point of view. Even now we send an SMS. But from a professional point of view it was not the best.
“I am who I am. I am a football man. Ed comes from a different background and what Ten Hag has in his time at Manchester United I didn’t have.
“I didn’t have that level of support. I didn’t have that level of trust. So I left sad, because I felt I was in the beginning of the process.
“In some moments, I felt if they trusted me and believed in my experience things could be different.”
Mourinho also claimed there are still players at Man Utd that he “didn’t want six years ago”.
Meanwhile, under-fire Ten Hag has called for patience amid uncertainty surrounding his future.
The Dutchman’s side sit eighth in the Premier League table with four games remaining, while they failed to make it out of their Champions League group.
But he remains optimistic heading into the final stages of the campaign – which will end with an FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 25.
He said: “You need outstanding players. Otherwise, you are in a process and you have to be patient. That is where we are now.
“We went for players who have high potentials, and we have to develop them, as individuals and as a team. But you need patience with the process.”