Erik ten Hag has had another dig at Cristiano Ronaldo suggesting that his time at the top of football was over years ago.

The former Manchester United manager appeared on ESPN in the Netherlands to talk about Ronaldo in depth.

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Ronaldo departed Man United for the second time in November 2022 only a few months after Ten Hag was appointed as the club's manager.

The decision for the Portuguese superstar to leave came after an explosive interview with Piers Morgan in which he claimed he had no respect for Ten Hag.

It's the Dutchman's turn to fight back and he's made some withering claims about Ronaldo.

When asked about his career in the last few years, Ten Hag said: "The players wanted to work for him and looked up to him because he is one of the greats of all time.

"But over the last seven or eight years, he simply can no longer deliver.

"From Juventus, it's simply over."

Ten Hag's Ronaldo claim

The key part of the interview was around Ten Hag talking to Ronaldo about his fitness.

The former Ajax boss claims that the striker simply didn't want to put in the extra work required to be fit enough to lead the line in the Premier League.

Ten Hag said: "When I started at Man United, I explained to him how we were going to play and what his role in that would be.

"But ultimately, you have to deliver. But he could no longer bring himself to push through the pain to give everything every single day and to train at his maximum.

"And if you are not fit to play in the Premier League, you have no chance.

Ten Hag was then asked about Ronaldo having always done that, and he said: "Well, that was the image. But he could no longer bring himself to do that.

"You show him what is required, and he knows it too, and you come to him with arguments that hold up."

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He was asked about Ronaldo's response and if it was to say Ten Hag wasn't good enough.

"No, he doesn't say that because the evidence was so clear. So he had to make a choice.

"At that moment, I have to make a decision that is in the best interests of the club and of the team.

"I know that I did everything I could to persuade him [to be Premier League fit], but the choice is with the individual as to whether he wants to make that investment.

"And if you don't want to, I have to make different choices in the interest of the team, and that's whet we saw."

And that is quite clear in just how little Ronaldo started under Ten Hag.

In the Premier League, he played the full game just three times before his interview with Morgan brought his career at Old Trafford to an unsavoury end.

On the added noise around Ronaldo, the Dutchman said: "No one is bigger than a club or a country not even Messi or Ronaldo.

"In the end, the team always comes first."

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What did Ronaldo say?

The interview with Ronaldo by Morgan in 2022 rocked the football world.

And in it, he was brutal about Ten Hag.

At one point, he refused to come on as a substitute for Man United against Tottenham Hotspur, while he also believed he was forced out.

On leaving Man United and the Dutchman, he said: “Don’t tell me that the top players, the guys who want everything, the key players will play three minutes.

"Come on, this is unacceptable after what they keep saying before, that they respect me, that they do this, they do that. For me it was not respect, this is why I take this decision I regret.

"I apologised to my teammates for the situation, I did a post, an Instagram, I regret to left from the stadium. I regret my teammates know what I felt, and I said to them apologised, but in the same way, I’m not regret to take the decisions to not come on.

"The coach didn’t have respect for me. So this is why the relationship, it’s in that way. He keep saying in the press that he come to me, he like me blah, blah, blah but that it’s only for the press. 100%.

“If you don’t have respect for me, I'm never going to have respect for you."