Revealed: Why Rasmus Hojlund complained about Bruno Fernandes to Erik ten Hag

Exactly two years ago, Ralf Rangnick said the Manchester United squad needed ‘open heart surgery’, and now more than ever it feels as though this soap opera of a club is stuck on a long hospital waiting list.

Rangnick already knew he wouldn’t be getting the job on a permanent basis when he said those words before a defeat at Arsenal in April 2022, so the wonderfully outspoken German – who regularly had United’s communications department running for cover during his short stay in England – was free to take aim and fire.

Rangnick could say the stuff that United managers can’t usually disclose until they are long gone. Only recently, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose sacking led to Rangnick’s arrival as interim boss, revealed that some of his players refused to captain the team, while others were asked to put their hands up at half-time of his last stand at Watford ‘if they didn’t want to play’. This is Manchester United, for goodness sake.

It was a battle even Jose Mourinho couldn’t win. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Monday, Mourinho said it didn’t feel like he had the club’s backing in his battle of wills with Paul Pogba.

It was no secret that the old United board thwarted Mourinho’s plan to sell Anthony Martial, and he had a difficult relationship with Luke Shaw.

‘There are a couple of players still there I didn’t want five or six years ago,’ Mourinho added. ‘I think they represent a little bit what I consider not the best professional profile to a club of a certain dimension. But I did my job there. Time always tells the truth.’

Ten Hag was brought in to fix what he described as ‘a no good culture’ but he’s never said more than that. In this age of player power, coaches need to pick their battles carefully, and he