Erik ten Hag has addressed Manchester United’s decision to ban several leading media figures from his pre-Chelsea press conference today.
United prevented Kaveh Solekhol of Sky Sports, the Manchester Evening News’ United correspondent Samuel Luckhurst, David McDonnell of the Mirror and ESPN’s Rob Dawson of ESPN from entering Ten Hag’s press conference, having been upset with reports of discontent inside the dressing room.
Several outlets published stories that suggested Ten Hag had lost faith from members of the United dressing room.
“We are taking action against a number of news organisations,” the Red Devils said in a statement.
“Not for publishing stories we don’t like, but for doing so without contacting us first to give us the opportunity to comment, challenge or contextualise.
“We believe this is an important principle to defend and we hope it can lead to a re-set in the way we work together.”
Ten Hag was asked for his opinion on the action and said the club were disappointed with the nature of the stories.
“They should have come to us first and not gone behind our back printing articles. That is not the right thing to do. We have a good relationship, they come to us beforehand and we have a debate about it.”
Asked whether he was concerned by the stories of players’ unhappiness, the Dutchman said: “No, of course there are always players in every team who are not playing and who are not as happy. That’s not different, that is normal. You have to wait for the chance and that can come, but there are no issues.”
