Erik ten Hag kept his Manchester United players locked in the dressing room for six hours watching episodes of Mrs Brown’s Boys, following their League Cup defeat to Newcastle United on Wednesday.
The beleaguered Dutchman, who is breaking records at Old Trafford for all the wrong reasons and who’s time in the dugout at the Theatre of Dreams looks to be coming to an end, made the squad binge watch 12 episodes of the (for some reason) hit TV show, as punishment for their 3-0 home loss to the Toon.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 02: Erik ten Hag, Manager of Manchester United, speaks to the media during the UEFA Champions League Press Conference at Carrington Training Ground on October 02, 2023 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images)
A club spokesperson told Paddy Power News:
“The gaffer spent the last 30 minutes of the game in conference with Steve McLaren about what he thought would be the best form of punishment after another woeful home performance.
“The initial idea was to make them wear tight-fitting kit in the steam room for three hours, then Steve remembered that he had a box set of Mrs Brown’s Boys on DVD in his car that was due back at the library this week.”
Having made his players sit in silence in the home team dressing-room on Sunday following their derby defeat to Manchester City, ten Hag went one step further on Wednesday to try to bring it home to his under-fire players, that performances such as this will not be tolerated.
As rumours of ill-discipline in the dressing room continue to circulate, an unnamed squad member broke rank this morning, to tell Paddy Power News about their latest ordeal.
“It was an absolute f***ing nightmare” they explained.
“The City punishment on Sunday was a piece of p**s compared to this and there was more to laugh at out on the pitch.
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“After two episodes, some of the lads were already bouncing off the walls, apart from Victor Lindelof, who told us that this was his favourite TV show of all time and that he had seen every episode over 30 times.
“It got so bad that after three hours, Tony Martial begged the boss to let him put his Back Street Boys Live at Wembley DVD on instead.
“When we were finally let out around 4am this morning, Bruno took us all down to the 24-hour McDonalds for a debrief and to discuss how best to throw the gaffer under the bus again at Fulham on Saturday.”
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