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Former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag laughed after receiving praise from Kobbie Mainoo. The 56-year-old has grown accustomed to facing criticism whenever his spell at Old Trafford is mentioned. Ten Hag was brought in ahead of the 2022/23 campaign and was charged with helping return United to their previous heights. The season prior to his appointment, the Red Devils had secured impressive signings of Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho, while Cristiano Ronaldo came home to Old Trafford in August 2021. Yet Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked mid-season and Ralf Rangnick could not secure Champions League football.
Ex-Ajax manager Ten Hag was drafted in and secured silverware on two occasions during his near two-and-a-half-year spell, winning the Carabao Cup in his debut season and beating Manchester City to claim the FA Cup in 2024.
But his time was also marked by prominent disputes with Ronaldo and Sancho. Ten Hag has recently responded to Ronaldo, who stated he had no respect for the manager prior to his United contract being terminated in November 2022.
The Portuguese forward was not the sole player to criticise Ten Hag, yet Mainoo retains fond recollections of his tenure, which delighted the Dutch boss.
"When I was 16, 17, I was training with the first team every day," Mainoo told iconic midfielder Clarence Seedorf in an interview for Amazon Prime.
"With Raphael Varane, Casemiro, and Bruno Fernandes, the speed of the balls and trying to adjust was my main thing.
"I think the training was tough. When Erik ten Hag and Mitchell van der Gaag were here, the sessions were tough. They were some of the best sessions I've been a part of. The intensity and competitiveness of those sessions really helped me in that time."
Upon hearing Mainoo's comments about him, Ten Hag laughed and reciprocated the admiration for the academy product.
He handed the teenage Mainoo his United debut in January 2023, with the youngster becoming a pivotal figure during his second campaign at the helm.
"Kobbie is, for me, special," Ten Hag said to The Athletic. "A lot of people were building him, supporting him. But in the end, he's doing it by himself."
Regarding the standards he set for Mainoo during training sessions, Ten Hag continued: "The first time I saw him, playing for the second team, I thought, 'OK, he's an amazing talent'. But he was too easy.
"I saw that we needed him to get in a higher intensity. We started to bring him in drills where we challenged him on dynamics."
The mutual respect between Ten Hag and Mainoo stands in sharp contrast to the manager's relationship with Ronaldo.
The former United manager has alleged that the legendary forward failed to put in sufficient effort during training sessions, further intensifying the dispute that led to the premature termination of Ronaldo's second spell.
Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Ronaldo said of the then-United boss: "I don't have respect for him (Ten Hag) because he doesn't show respect for me."
Ronaldo wasn't the only high-profile player to criticise Ten Hag during his tenure. In September 2023, Sancho was omitted from the matchday squad to face Arsenal, with Ten Hag citing the winger's training-ground displays as justification for his selection.
Taking to social media, the England international insisted he had been "a scapegoat for a long time". Sancho was then excluded from the first team before being sent on loan to Borussia Dortmund in January 2024.
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