Former Manchester United midfielder James Garner says an injury and a single conversation with Erik ten Hag made it clear that his time at Old Trafford was reaching an end
James Garner has suggested that he had no chance of making his mark under Erik ten Hag at Manchester United because of an injury on the former head coach’s first day in charge.
And Garner, who joined United’s academy aged seven, thinks the writing was on the wall when the Dutchman could not promise he would get some game time during a man-to-man conversation.
Ten Hag made the centre midfielder available for transfer in the summer of 2022 and he signed for Everton for an initial fee of £9m, which could eventually rise to £15.5m.
Speaking to the More than A Match podcast, Garner said: “I felt like I had a chance because I’d proven myself on loan. They could see that I was serious to try and take up a spot, but obviously, the new manager came in, Ten Hag, and I got injured on the first day of pre-season, which killed me.
“I’ve come back and I want to show people that I’ve developed in the gym and all that, doing everything maxed out and all that stuff, and I’ve maxed out on my quad… I tore it basically.
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“I was running and every time I planted on my right side it felt like my right side was 20 kilograms heavier than the left. It was weird, so I got a scan and I was out for three weeks. I missed the first few weeks of the new manager. That was his very first session and I was injured on the first day.
“He’s come to implement his new style and a new way of playing, and I got injured on the first day. I’m not saying I would have stayed. I could have. I might have hit the ground running on the first day and he might have thought ‘I’m keeping him, he’s good’. I might have suited him, but we’ll never know.”
Garner continued: “We went to Thailand and came back. I played one or two games, but didn’t play as well as I’d liked, coming back from injury, being nervous and wanting to impress.
“And then it was kind of a conversation, so I went to see him [Ten Hag] and I said ‘honestly I kind of want some kind of answer whether I’m going to play a part of this season.’
“He said ‘you’re going to play a part, but I’m not going to promise anything.’ I thought I’d got my answer. I’m not scared to go out of my comfort zone. I think it’s time now to go and play. I didn’t want to stagnate, I didn’t want to sit on the bench after playing every single game in the season before.”
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