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Former Manchester United defender Phil Jones has revealed details of a dressing room meltdown after a decision by Ralf Rangnick that left him enraged.
Jones officially announced his retirement from professional football last month.
He spent 12 years at Old Trafford – a tenure that was mostly marred by injuries and fitness struggles. He also recently revealed that he suffered mental trauma from the various setbacks he endured at the club.
While on United’s books, Jones worked under seven managers: Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick, and Erik ten Hag.
However, he noted that only one gaffer made him lose his cool – Rangnick.
Rangnick’s brief spell in the dugout was a catastrophic one. In April 2022, United were beaten 4-0 by bitter rivals Liverpool.
With the score 2-0 at half-time, the German coach took off Jones, who had just made his long-awaited return from injury. The defender was replaced by Jadon Sancho but that decision didn’t pay off as United conceded an extra two goals.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Jones insisted that he felt Rangnick made the easy decision to hook him at the break. He explained that this change made him irate and he made no secret of his anger in the dressing room.
Jones said, “I’ve never lost my head in a dressing room and I’ve never been emotional enough to lose myself in the dressing room, and I think that’s the only time in my career that I completely lost it.”
“I was absolutely raging. Raging. That he humiliated me. Humiliated me in front of an Anfield crowd first and foremost, fearsome rivals, and the fans and my family and the players.”
“We were 2-0 down at half-time, weren’t great, I don’t think we had a shot on target first half. Nothing was coming off. And I’d actually done alright in the game. Considering where I’d been, what I’d been going through, knee and injury-wise. I’ll look back at the game and I’ll highlight anything, I didn’t give the ball away, I was calm under pressure.”
“I’m not saying I was exceptional but I definitely didn’t deserve to come off at half-time. There were far worse players on the pitch that day, I was the easy one to come off. You’re an easy scapegoat.”
The 32-year-old added, “At half-time I remember Ralf came in and said ‘I’m going to make a change, Phil’s going to come off’. I remember the whole dressing room went like [eyes open] as if to say, ‘is he bringing Phil off here?’ I took my boots off and I slammed them on the floor and I said, ‘You’re taking the **** out of me’.”
“Everyone said, ‘calm down, calm down’. I get irate now, it really got to me.”
Jones explained that he later issued an apology to Rangnick for his outburst.
The former United no.4 however mentioned that it’s understandable why he was angry.
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