Erik ten Hag disputes claim that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Man Utd
By Tom Gott
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo has not spoken with him about leaving the club this summer.
Ronaldo voiced his desire to leave United in search of Champions League football earlier this summer and, after missing pre-season for 'personal reasons', has had a slow start to life under the new boss, who felt the forward was only fit enough for a spot on the bench in United's season-opening defeat to Brighton.
Amid the uncertainty, Ten Hag has repeatedly stressed his desire to keep Ronaldo around, vowing to get him up to speed with the rest of the team soon enough.
In his latest press conference, Ten Hag was asked about starting Ronaldo in Saturday's meeting with Brentford and whether it would be smart to select a player who wants to leave the club, but the boss questioned the legitimacy of that claim.
"[Ronaldo wanting to leave] is your assumption. That is not what he is telling me," Ten Hag said.
"So I deal with the players we have and we plan with him for this season and we are happy with him and we have to fit him into the team. So he has to come at the right fitness levels so that he can do the job that we expect him to do.
"In every press conference, we already confirmed that he is in our plans. We plan with him so we also plan around him."
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Ten Hag also responded to questions over the future of Marcus Rashford, but was adamant that the England international would not be leaving Old Trafford amid talk of a move to PSG.
"He is really important, you have seen from the first day I am in, I'm really happy with him, and definitely don't want to lose him, he is in our plans," Ten Hag confirmed. "He will stay at Manchester United."