How Man United’s dressing room vs Aston Villa was “shockingly breached” and what Erik ten Hag said

Manchester United’s dressing room ahead of their clash against Aston Villa was bugged with a device that recorded Erik ten Hag’s pre-match team talk.

The Reds entered the game in desperate need of a result after a poor start to Erik ten Hag’s third season in charge at Old Trafford.

A 0-0 draw was far from ideal but enough to gift the Dutch manager more time at the helm despite the club’s leadership team discussing his future at their latest meeting.

However, after a rather boring contest on the pitch, it was an individual fan’s secret actions that garnered attention following the Premier League game.

It was revealed that a recording device had been hidden inside the away dressing room at Villa Park several days before the clash last Sunday.

Undetected by United staff on matchday, the device was able to record audio from the Reds’ behind-closed-doors discussions ahead of the game, including Erik ten Hag’s team talk.

A source told The Sun: “This is a shocking breach of security and some serious questions will be asked as to how this was allowed to happen. Fortunately, there was nothing sinister to this incident.”

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The report added that the prankster used a phone from China that has a setting where a microphone can be activated by calling it from another device.

He then sticky-taped the handset somewhere out of sight in the United dressing room and only rang it when he knew the manager would be in there.

The source continued: “It was just a prankster, who’s actually a United fan, being silly and wanting to hear what was said inside those four walls.

“But it will definitely be a cause for concern about how they managed to get inside a changing room at one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs just days before a match.”

The report also claimed to have heard the recording, in which you can clearly hear Ten Hag’s instructions to the team and individual players, but have decided against releasing the audio.

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