Chelsea Champions League winner hits out at ‘hostile and disrespectful’ former Premier League boss – and reveals he refused to speak to him in a ‘Mexican standoff’

Former Chelsea star Ryan Betrand has opened up on a Premier League manager he locked horns with, which resulted in a ‘Mexican standoff’ and the pair not speaking.

A true Premier League journeyman, Bertrand was contracted at Chelsea between 2006 and 2015 but spent just two full seasons with the Blues, enduring loan periods in each of the other seven.

Eventually, the left back settled at Southampton in 2015, where he went on to make more appearances than he did for his seven previous clubs combined.

But it was during his fifth season with the Saints where Bertrand, aged 29 at the time, became unsettled.

The Cobham academy graduate detailed how the introduction of Ralph Hasenhutll in 2018 eventually led to a silent stand-off, with Bertrand having to consult club chiefs to find out what the manager’s issue with him was.

Betrand noted that he eventually resolved his differences with Hasenhutll, before explaining how the Austrian’s ‘egotistical’ and ‘authoritarian’ approach caused tension in the squad.

‘To be honest, I have a lot of respect for him [Hasenhutll]. I really like him, he’s a really good guy,’ Bertrand told Business of Sport.

‘But at the start, he came in fully egotistical, thinking anyone 30 plus, 28 plus [years old] is the enemy because they can’t learn new things.

‘It’s his way or the highway, everyone needs to listen, there’s no talking back. He was so paranoid of other people making him look like he’s not the No 1. He confused feedback for talking back, he had such an authoritarian approach.’

Bertrand went on to explain an incident where Hasenhutll took him off at the end of a match that Southampton were losing, rather than keeping all attacking players on the pitch and opting to substitute a centre back.

Bertrand respectfully confronted the manager a day after the game and asked for an explanation behind the decision.

He described Hasenhutll’s reaction as ‘hostile’ and revealed that they never spoke much after the conversation. Instead, Bertrand was punished by being inexplicably left out of the lineup on multiple ocassions.

Bertrand continued: ‘He was playing people like, Moussa Djenepo, he was playing him [at] left back. He was playing Kevin Danso [at] left back. Centre backs [at] left back, wingers [at] left back – anything to provoke a reaction out of me.’

Bertrand insisted that Hasenhutll’s antics did not get to him, and that he decided to get his head down in training, as his main objective was to win.

After some time, the player spoke to one of the club directors and asked what was going on. It was then revealed that Hasenhutll felt aggrieved by Bertrand’s decision to question his in-game management.

Bertrand then revealed that Hasenhuttl’s behaviour took a remarkable U-turn towards the latter stages of his managerial tenure.

The 35-year-old said: ‘Towards the end, he went full circle. He ended up being more personable, talking to everyone, trying to be people’s best mate, had more of a character.’

Bertrand did not have time for this, though, and felt slighted by the fact that Hassenhuttl had already ‘killed’ his game. 

He added: ‘I just thought “you weren’t worth my time because at the start you were very disrespectful”. He was killing my game at Southampton. I had to stay back.’

Bertrand moved to Leicester in 2021 on a two-year contract and left the club as a free agent upon the expiration of his deal. A year later, he announced his retirement.

But he attributes the narrative that he was ‘getting on a bit’ at Southampton to Hasenhuttl forcing him to stay back and not join the attack.

Betrand made 485 senior appearances across his 17-year career. Currently, there is no word of him returning to a role in football, as he has pivoted his attention to the world of business. Hasenhuttl, meanwhile, left Southampton in 2022 to join Wolfsburg, where he was sacked this May.