Having watched a snippet of Piers Morgan’s interview with former Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, you get the sense the reporter is laying traps in attempt to trip up the interviewee.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic explains there’s a big difference between Ajax and Manchester United. While both clubs are renowned for their youth academies, it’s fair to say United is a commercial juggernaut that prefers to sign footballers with established profiles in a bid to help grow the brand.
The retired striker, who scored 29 goals in 53 appearances during his time at Old Trafford, came to us far too late in his career. He brought a spirit to Jose Mourinho’s side that filled us with belief and the dressing room lost the run of itself after he left in 2018.
At least at Ajax, Ten Hag had a proper football structure backing behind him.
Morgan’s pathetic attempt to be Cristiano Ronaldo’s best friend has no barriers. He is willing to go the extra mile to pressurise his guests into badmouthing Erik ten Hag, who rightly showed his pal Ronnie the door at Old Trafford last year.
Ibrahimovic, who played for both Ajax and United during his career, has now had his say on the issue.
“Coming from Ajax to United as he did is a big difference — I have been in both clubs. You have a different kind of discipline. Ajax is a talented club. They have the best talents in the club. They don’t have big stars,” Ibrahimovic told Piers Morgan via TalkTV, as quoted by The Sun.
“What is the experience of this coach? Young talents, he comes to United, it is a different mentality. The players there are supposed to be big stars. I don’t think you give the same treatment.
“How much time do you give a coach? It depends on the owners, what they want, but if you listen to the fans, you don’t have a lot of time because they want to win, and I understand them because they are used to winning and they want to still win.
“United has to win, they have to win every title they play for. Now they are being dominated by neighbours Man City and it’s a totally different situation there. Everybody has a responsibility to fulfil the demands.
“You need to find the right path again and to push for that. You need a plan, you need a project to follow. It feels like you follow a project plan and then it goes wild in a moment because of the results.
“Either you believe in it or you don’t believe in it. But with the situation of the coach, I think he is living two different situations now. Then obviously what happened with Sancho and Cristiano, I don’t know. When things are good, there are still errors and problems, but you don’t see it because we are winning.”
I urge you all to watch the snippet yourself because some outlets are trying to suggest Ibrahimovic has suggested that Ten Hag is not the man for United. That is not something I picked up from the clip, although Morgan blatantly pushes the Swede to have a go at the Dutchman.
Ibrahimovic is above that that and raises some valid points about the challenges Ten Hag faces at Old Trafford.
It’s no secret that Ten Hag is under pressure after United lost four of their opening seven Premier League matches. The record books tell us it’s our worst start to a season in 34 years.
There are multiple factors behind that such as injuries, but Ten Hag still must find a way to win football matches.
We shouldn’t ignore the problems the manager has had to deal with off the pitch. From the recent fallout with Jadon Sancho to allegations of domestic abuse being made against Antony, it hasn’t been an easy job for Ten Hag and he knew it wouldn’t be when he accepted Richard Arnold’s offer.
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