Man Utd player singled out as ‘rotten apple’ after Jose Mourinho exposed four stars

Man Utd forward Marcus Rashford has been called a “rotten apple” by a Dutch journalist as he struggles under Erik ten Hag.

The Red Devils have been poor this season under Ten Hag with the Dutchman coming under pressure to turn results and performances around.

Man Utd have won just two of their opening seven matches of the season with their eight points so far leaving them 14th in the Premier League.

There were rumours that Ten Hag would have to prove himself in matches against Porto and Aston Villa, which both ended in draws, to keep his job.

Man Utd held a pre-planned meeting on Tuesday, which involved talks about Ten Hag’s future , with a number of names being linked to his job.

Despite scoring three goals in two matches against Southampton and Barnsley in September, Rashford was dropped by Ten Hag for their fixture, with the Man Utd boss claiming “rotation” was the reason for his omission.

Ten Hag also substituted Rashford in last week’s 3-3 draw against Porto at half-time with the former Ajax manager citing the same reason for the England international’s withdrawal.

Some pundits and former players have claimed that there must have been some kind of bust-up between Rashford and Ten Hag – but there is no evidence of anything happening between the Man Utd pair.

And now Algemeen Dagblad journalist Geert Langendorff has accused Rashford of being “one of the rotten apples” that Jose Mourinho pointed to in an interview last year.

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Langendorff said on the AD Voetbalpodcast : “He is one of the rotten apples. Rashford had problems off the pitch last year. He didn’t quite colour within the lines.

“And anyone who saw him on Sunday against Aston Villa. He was ostentatiously applying for a red card. Fortunately, Ten Hag was able to intervene just in time and get him off.

“Mourinho never mentioned names. But he did say there were one or two more rotten apples who made the job impossible for him. Anthony Martial was one of them, who has since left. The fact that Mourinho said there is one more sitting there. That can only be one and that is Rashford.”

Former Man Utd boss Mourinho insisted in December 2023 that there were still players at Old Trafford from his time there who are holding the Premier League club back.

Mourinho told John Obi Mikel’s Obi One podcast: “There are still people in that club, and when I say people I mean some players but also some other people that are not players, that are still there when I told [United] after two months: With these people, you are never going to do it. And they are still there.”

His comments pointed at the time to Luke Shaw, Antony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay, who were the only four players still at the club, with Martial and McTominay leaving in the summer.