'Harry Maguire will stay our captain' - Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick denies 'nonsense' Cristiano Ronaldo rumours
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Updated 18/02/2022 at 19:44 GMT
Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick has denied there is any truth to rumours suggesting he was ready to strip Harry Maguire of the captaincy. Reports of a leadership rift between Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo have been prominent this week, but Rangnick added his rebuttal to those of Maguire and Marcus Rashford, who both posted their views on social media.
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Ralf Rangnick says he has never considered stripping Harry Maguire of the Manchester United captaincy.
The Red Devils boss has had to contend with multiple reports in the last week suggesting a leadership rift in the camp between Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Both Maguire and Marcus Rashford responded to the newspapers in question with social media denials, and talking ahead of his side's trip to Leeds on Sunday, Rangnick has once more thrown his support behind the embattled Maguire.
Rangnick said: "I must say this is absolute nonsense.
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'Absolutely nonsense' - Rangnick denies Ronaldo and Maguire rift
"I have never spoken with any player about a possible change of captaincy, Harry was fully aware of that, so was Cristiano and the other players. This has never been an issue for me.
"It's me who decides who's the captain and therefore there is no reason for me to speak about that with another person.
"Harry is our captain and he will stay our captain until the end of the season and there is nothing else to add on to that.
"I'm not frustrated at all because I know it's not true. I told you about Harry being the captain, it's not an issue at all, it's never been an issue for us or myself as manager.
"All the other things, to be honest, I don't listen to that noise that much because my full focus is on preparing the team for the next training [session], for the next game.
"Obviously, I have heard about what was written. I can only tell you from my personal experience in the last 12 weeks, yes, there were players unhappy until the closure of the window because, as I always said, the squad was too big, we had too many players who just realised they wouldn't get game-time and this has improved, for sure.
"From what I can tell, the atmosphere in the locker room is better than it used to be a couple of weeks ago for all those reasons.
"For us it's about performing well, showing togetherness on the pitch, getting the best out of our performance and winning games, that's our job.
"Those are the things we can influence, all the other things we can't."
Rangnick also revealed that Edinson Cavani is likely to miss the Premier League encounter at Elland Road with groin and stomach problems.
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