Erik ten Hag hit out at the culture at Man Utd during an interview about his time in charge at Old Trafford.

The expiry of Erik ten Hag's non-disclosure agreement with Manchester United has led to an excellent interview.

Ten Hag recently spoke to The Athletic in his hometown of Enschede in the Netherlands, where he discussed "broken promises", top targets he missed out on, and his dramatic fallout with Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Dutchman also shared his view on current ongoings, throwing his support behind Michael Carrick and suggesting that United's board have continued to enable a "toxic culture" to fester in the dressing room.

Ten Hag feels he was not supported in sanctions on several matters of player discipline, including with Jadon Sancho, Rashford and others.

“And so, they are continuing the toxic culture," he explained. "They fuel it, they give the power to the players. Rashford is an amazing player, if his mindset is right. I always showed my trust in him, played him, but when you show these standards, sometimes you have to make corrections.”

United have made their worst start to a Premier League campaign for 40 years, but a poor dressing-room culture has, for once, not been one of the contributing factors behind the disappointing results and performances.

However, it was an issue that Ten Hag had to contend with, and subsequently Ruben Amorim did so, with the latter banishing a few bad eggs to create a more harmonious group that was pulling in the same direction.

The elephant in the room from Ten Hag's reference to toxic culture and player power is the mention of Rashford, who was controversially reintegrated at United over the summer by Carrick.

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Rashford scored 30 goals in Ten Hag's first season at the club and was rewarded with a bumper £350,000 per week contract, signed in June 2023, but the pair's relationship began to sour quickly in the next campaign.

The forward's form dipped - he scored just once in the first 10 league games - and his trip to a nightclub after an embarrassing defeat against Manchester City angered Ten Hag, who branded it "unacceptable".

Rashford was forced to apologise to Ten Hag, but he didn't learn his lesson, making a boozy jaunt to Belfast two months later, a trip which came just days before United's season was set to resume against Newport County in the FA Cup fourth round.

The episode was serious enough for United to haul in Rashford's brother and representative, Dwaine Maynard, to Carrington. The academy graduate missed the Newport game, and Ten Hag refused to speak about the situation before United's next match against Wolves.

But he did answer when asked if he was imposing the right discipline on his players, saying: "It's nothing to do with me but in football, you need discipline and that is on the pitch but also off the pitch. There is a line between, every player, every professional knows this, what is required."

Rashford started against Wolves and scored after five minutes. Ten Hag later privately admitted he would have axed Rashford after Belfast if he had more forwards, but felt it was necessary to smooth things over.

Rashford had enough chances before Amorim finally decided he'd seen enough, sending him on loan to Aston Villa. And when he was sent to Barcelona last season, it's understood United were relieved as they believed Barca would trigger their £26million option to sign him.

The clause seemed like a guarantee of getting the highest earner, a player who had caused problems, off the books, but United were left in a difficult position when the Catalan club signed Anthony Gordon instead.

Ten Hag's reference to player power still being an issue was an obvious nod to Rashford, who he could have said a lot more about. The Dutchman has previously said more behind closed doors - and held his tongue.

It's not a surprise that Ten Hag still feels the same about Rashford, who let him down. On the other hand, Carrick played alongside Rashford and coached him as part of Jose Mourinho's backroom staff. He briefly managed him during his interim stint when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked.

Carrick made his own decision about Rashford, based on his experiences dealing with him. Has it paid off so far? No, but Rashford has been playing through a hip injury, which kept him out of training on Tuesday morning.

Carrick believes he can get the best out of Rashford, but Ten Hag once thought the same.