New Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag is now in his second week of pre-season training, with news emerging of his 'new rules' that he's implementing within the club for his players to follow - something which Stuart Pearce believes is a recipe for trouble.
The 52-year-old Dutchman is set to take his players to Thailand before travelling to Australia the following week as part of their pre-season tour. But before flying out, he has made his team aware of rules that they must follow under his regime.
The Mirror reported that the new boss made the team aware that any player will be dropped if they are late for training or team meetings. This comes without any exceptions - with reputations counting for nothing.
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Another rule is that the team will not be allowed to drink alcohol during game weeks, in order to ensure that they will be at their maximum conditioning level during the busy campaign. This will be tested by each player have a monthly BMI check-up, as well as having a custom-made diet plan drawn up whilst having the same chefs preparing meals for United's players, rather than them employing their own personal catering staff to cook for them.
The food menu at Carrington is also reported to have been altered, with fish and vegetables featuring more prominently than before.
And finally, the manager has asked that his players come to see him if they have any issues - rather than going to their agents - preventing dressing room leaks and unnecessary unrest.
Former England U21 coach Pearce has given his thoughts on the 'rules'. He told talkSPORT: "If you've set those five rules up, they must all be run past him and then he has to deal with every little problem that they throw up. Let's take the diet for example. A lot of these players employ their own chefs away from football. You can't police that.
"They do it for the right reasons, and for the different foods that they have culturally around the world. By putting something like that individual rule in place, you've got to police it! And how do you police it?
"Being late is common sense. You wait until he drives around and gets stuck in traffic on the M60! If you're a first-team player and you get stuck in a bit of traffic on your way to training and you're dropped, would you say ''fine, they're the rules, what can I do about it?''
"It is unpoliceable at times. Common sense has got to play a fair part. You're just asking for trouble as a manager."
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