**From The Telegraph’s Northern Football Correspondent, James Ducker:**
Manchester United banned a number of media outlets from their press conference after they published stories claiming manager Erik ten Hag was facing a dressing room revolt.
Reporters from Sky Sports News, the Daily Mirror, the Manchester Evening News and ESPN were all barred from attending Tuesday’s media briefing ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League game against Chelsea at Old Trafford.
United said the action was taken not because of the stories themselves but because the club was not contacted for comment in advance.
“We’re taking action against a number of news organisations today, 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,” the club said.
“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.”
Sir Alex Ferguson, the former United manager, was known to ban journalists during his time in charge of the club and now Ten Hag has taken a leaf out of the Scot’s book.
Piers Morgan: United’s journalist ban is ‘laughable’The move drew criticism from the TalkTV presenter and former national newspaper editor, Piers Morgan, who conducted the interview with Cristiano Ronaldo last year that led to the player’s exit at Old Trafford.
“Pathetic,” Morgan – who has been a vocal critic of Ten Hag – posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“You can pull this stunt when you’re the greatest manager of all time like Sir Alex, but to do it when you’re as bad as Ten Hag and the journalists are accurately reporting how bad you are, is laughable.”
The bans come at a time when Ten Hag is under growing scrutiny after United slumped to a 10th defeat of a dismal season with a feeble 1-0 loss at Newcastle on Saturday night.
United are now seventh in the Premier League, five points adrift of the top four, and will crash out of the Champions League next week if they fail to beat Bayern Munich at Old Trafford on Tuesday or Copenhagen or Galatasaray beat each other in their final Group A game.
United also play Bournemouth on Saturday and Liverpool the following weekend, with Ten Hag facing a forbidding run of fixtures this month.
United have been plagued by off field issues this season. Jadon Sancho has been banished from the first team for the past three months after a falling out with the manager.
Ten Hag clashed with Anthony Martial during the Newcastle debacle and Marcus Rashford – whose performance in that game drew withering criticism – was reprimanded by the manager in October for going out until the early hours after the 3-0 derby defeat by Manchester City when he had training that morning.
Antony was given a leave of absence to deal with a number of allegations of violence made against him by three women – all of which the Brazil winger strenuously denies. He returned to the squad in October after a five match absence.
Mason Greenwood left on loan for Getafe in September after United backtracked on plans to reinstate the striker following an internal investigation. Allegations of domestic assault against Greenwood were eventually dropped.
An injury crisis that has robbed Ten Hag of a host of key players has not helped United’s cause this season and Lisandro Martínez, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen remain sidelined.
But Ten Hag has also faced criticism for United being too open and the lack of a clear playing style.
3 comments
**From The Telegraph’s Northern Football Correspondent, James Ducker:**
Manchester United banned a number of media outlets from their press conference after they published stories claiming manager Erik ten Hag was facing a dressing room revolt.
Reporters from Sky Sports News, the Daily Mirror, the Manchester Evening News and ESPN were all barred from attending Tuesday’s media briefing ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League game against Chelsea at Old Trafford.
United said the action was taken not because of the stories themselves but because the club was not contacted for comment in advance.
“We’re taking action against a number of news organisations today, 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,” the club said.
“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.”
Sir Alex Ferguson, the former United manager, was known to ban journalists during his time in charge of the club and now Ten Hag has taken a leaf out of the Scot’s book.
Piers Morgan: United’s journalist ban is ‘laughable’The move drew criticism from the TalkTV presenter and former national newspaper editor, Piers Morgan, who conducted the interview with Cristiano Ronaldo last year that led to the player’s exit at Old Trafford.
“Pathetic,” Morgan – who has been a vocal critic of Ten Hag – posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“You can pull this stunt when you’re the greatest manager of all time like Sir Alex, but to do it when you’re as bad as Ten Hag and the journalists are accurately reporting how bad you are, is laughable.”
The bans come at a time when Ten Hag is under growing scrutiny after United slumped to a 10th defeat of a dismal season with a feeble 1-0 loss at Newcastle on Saturday night.
United are now seventh in the Premier League, five points adrift of the top four, and will crash out of the Champions League next week if they fail to beat Bayern Munich at Old Trafford on Tuesday or Copenhagen or Galatasaray beat each other in their final Group A game.
United also play Bournemouth on Saturday and Liverpool the following weekend, with Ten Hag facing a forbidding run of fixtures this month.
United have been plagued by off field issues this season. Jadon Sancho has been banished from the first team for the past three months after a falling out with the manager.
Ten Hag clashed with Anthony Martial during the Newcastle debacle and Marcus Rashford – whose performance in that game drew withering criticism – was reprimanded by the manager in October for going out until the early hours after the 3-0 derby defeat by Manchester City when he had training that morning.
Antony was given a leave of absence to deal with a number of allegations of violence made against him by three women – all of which the Brazil winger strenuously denies. He returned to the squad in October after a five match absence.
Mason Greenwood left on loan for Getafe in September after United backtracked on plans to reinstate the striker following an internal investigation. Allegations of domestic assault against Greenwood were eventually dropped.
An injury crisis that has robbed Ten Hag of a host of key players has not helped United’s cause this season and Lisandro Martínez, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen remain sidelined.
But Ten Hag has also faced criticism for United being too open and the lack of a clear playing style.
**Article link ⤵️**
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/12/05/man-utd-ban-journalists-reports-erik-ten-hag-revolt/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/12/05/man-utd-ban-journalists-reports-erik-ten-hag-revolt/)
Sky sports is their main sponsor
What a shambles of a football club. Honestly, it seems like *every day* there’s something new that makes this club look ridiculous. Spineless move.