Raphael Varane and Casemiro ringleaders in player dissent toward Erik ten Hag
Shocking revelations have come to light over dressing room unrest last season at Manchester United.
Sources of The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell have named the ringleaders in a barrage of player dissent toward manager Erik ten Hag.
A historically poor Premier League campaign left Ten Hag close to losing his job at the helm of the Old Trafford outfit, but a last-minute reprieve has seen him live to fight another day.
Scattered reports throughout the season claimed that there was dressing room disharmony.
Ten Hag’s handling of Jadon Sancho, who was exiled from the first team squad, has been reported to have caused “fractures” in the dressing room.
In addition, Whitwell says that players “pushed back at what they felt was an overload of information, believing it to be micromanagement that inhibited their play. Others could not fully grasp what was being asked” of them by the manager.
The reporter claims this dates back to Cristiano Ronaldo’s famous falling out with Ten Hag. Whilst the club backed the boss, “the cracks his resistance had caused remained, with other players gradually emboldened to disagree with their manager.”
According to Whitwell, two of the biggest critics of Ten Hag’s methods were Casemiro and Raphael Varane, both former teammates of the Portuguese at Real Madrid. The reporter claims that they “spoke to team-mates about the similar approaches taken by Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, which gave players more freedom and greater agency on workload, and how Ten Hag’s positional style of football was not to their taste.”
Staff explained to them that the physical rigours of the Premier League compared to La Liga meant that such methods were not appropriate at United, but “Casemiro and Varane, having won multiple titles, had strong feelings and became dissenting voices.”
The dissent of such senior and well-respected figures in the dressing room influenced younger players, the report says, although Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo were not amongst them and “responded well” to “firm feedback”.
Players were unhappy and some “began to switch off because of meetings that went over the same details.”
Meetings were said to last up to an hour, but usually were 30 minutes or less. However, “some senior players felt the repetition was too much.”
Jason Wilcox’s arrival as technical director may have helped the Dutchman as he appeared to soften his approach toward the end of the season. This seems to have coincided with an uptick in performances, culminating in the epic victory in the FA Cup final.
The claim that Varane was one of the ringleaders ties in with the strange decision earlier in the season to bench the decorated star for the derby against Manchester City, picking 35-year-old Jonny Evans ahead of him. It also explains why the Frenchman’s contract was allowed to run down.
As for Casemiro, unless rumours of Saudi Arabian interest prove to be true, it is hard to see how the manager will be able to rid himself of the divisive star. With a weekly wage of £350,000 and legs that look to have already gone, it is very hard to see who would take the Brazilian off United’s hands.
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