It's what the Manchester United dressing room has been crying out for. A manager who treats players as close to equals as possible, who demands respect is earned and a place in the team comes via performances. Alas, it is not what Cristiano Ronaldo wanted.
The washed-up forward wanted the special treatment he's had for years, the right to demand a team is built around him. That he is the altar at which the rest come to worship.
And he wanted all that having agitated for a move away all summer, had his camp leak stories that he wanted to leave on the eve of Ten Hag's first pre-season, refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham and then walked away from Old Trafford early to make sure the spotlight was once again on him.
Read more: All the fall-out from Ronaldo's chat with Morgan
We await the full content of Ronaldo's tell-all with Piers Morgan later this week, but on the bits trailed so far, his argument doesn't stand up. Nobody should forget that this has been a challenging year for Ronaldo on a personal level and just because he has fame and fortune doesn't make it any easier to come to terms with, but that doesn't give anyone the right to turn their fire on their own employees, especially when he's the best-paid employee they've ever had.
United were determined that the Ronaldo interview wouldn't overshadow their win at Fulham, when the team spirit Ten Hag is creating was again on show, even if the performance levels weren't. Maybe it's fitting that the winner was scored by a precocious 18-year-old winger with the world at his feet. The future is now and the past is doing sit-downs with a talk show host who is marmite at best. Morgan's biggest gets of the last few years are Donald Trump and Ronaldo. There won't be many volunteers to make up that four-ball.
The choice of the interviewer is also telling. Morgan is a social media sycophant where Ronaldo is concerned and we can be sure where his sympathies will fall on this. Are we really going to see Morgan digging into some of Ronaldo's own indiscretions since he returned to the club, or will it all be constructing a storyline where he is the one who has been wronged?
Speaking on talkSPORT on Monday morning, Morgan stressed he did ask Ronaldo about his refusal to come on against Tottenham, but he told the broadcaster it was disrespectful of Ten Hag to ask him to come on with three minutes to go in a game United were losing. They won 2-0 with their best performance of the season, so I think we can hazard a guess at who drives the narrative in this sit-down. He also said in that interview that Ten Hag had decided to "scold him [Ronaldo], publicly berate him". He'd be hard-pressed to find any evidence of that.
That is for later in the week though, but when United assess the details and what they have heard so far and decide on a suitable punishment for their 37-year-old striker, they might also realise that what Ronaldo is doing is actually a compliment to Ten Hag. This summer United needed a manager who would take no prisoners and who would establish the manager as the most important figure at Old Trafford.
In one of the more relevant bits of the interview we've seen so far, Ronaldo takes aim at Ralf Rangnick. It is petty, but it is pretty much true as well. Ronaldo claims he'd never heard of him and he wouldn't have been alone in that dressing room. None of the players respected the German and that allowed the spirit and unity in the dressing room to erode further.
The raft of senior departures this summer helped to wipe the slate clean and start the closure of the player power era. Ten Hag's appointment further strengthened that. He is big on details and tactical clarity, but he's not one for small talk and he made some players feel uncomfortable on the tour with his lack of interaction.
Ronaldo missed that tour for personal reasons and seems to be suggesting he didn't get enough support or understanding from the club during that period. That's difficult to comment on without further explanation, but when he did return he did little to endear himself to the new management structure.
It is telling that Ten Hag had, privately, changed his mind on the value of keeping Ronaldo within weeks of working with him. Their awkward touchline chat during the Rayo Vallecano friendly felt revealing and the fact that the player just doesn't fit in the new system was laid bare during the 4-0 defeat by Brentford. That was day zero for Ten Hag and it gave him the chance to be ruthless.
This is probably where all that stems from. Since then Ronaldo hasn't been in the team all that often. Not because Ten Hag doesn't respect him, but because he doesn't think he's good enough. When Antony Martial is fit, it's impossible to argue that Ronaldo should be playing on the evidence of this season. Even when he isn't, they've looked like a different, more fluid and more functional team without him.
Ten Hag's no-nonsense approach with Ronaldo was clear when he was disciplined the day after the Tottenham game. The Dutchman was praised for taking action, for kicking him out of the squad for a game, but if there's been a misstep from Ten Hag this season, then maybe it is allowing him back in so easily.
Ronaldo remains an influential figure in this squad, someone the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and other youngsters look up to. So when Ronaldo was given his longest run in the team straight after his Spurs indiscretion, it didn't send the right message. Making him captain at Aston Villa just 18 days after he'd refused to play for the club certainly didn't.
There will be no coming back from his second public show of contempt this season. United should be furious about this interview - its contents and its timing - as should his teammates. The dynamic between Ronaldo and his international teammates Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes will be fascinating to observe during the World Cup. Dalot has thrived under Ten Hag and Fernandes has been getting better and better.
Ronaldo's self-centred, egotistical interview has undermined their work. They might be able to put it to one side for the challenge of winning a World Cup, but they should be making it clear he's not welcome back at Carrington again.
United never did confirm whether Ronaldo was fined for his refusal to come off the bench. This time the punishment should be the strongest possible. There is no point in trying to salvage relationships now.
As much as Ronaldo is trying to make himself the victim here, it is clearly about getting out of the club in January. Yet there was no need to try and force the club's hand in this manner. He could have gone at the end of the summer window, but the uncomfortable truth for the player and his entourage is that the only interest in him was from Saudi Arabia. Maybe he's telling us now that the Saudi Pro League held an attraction after all. It might have to, because if he has a difficult World Cup then his career at the highest level in Europe is surely finished.
Whether United let him leave for free in January, demand a fee, sack him or stick him in the Under-21s is largely irrelevant. He can never play for the club again and can never train with the first team again.
Ten Hag has overhauled the spirit in the United dressing room, through the canny additions of leaders like Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro and empowering players who have a strong voice. They won't welcome Ronaldo back after this.
It might not feel like it now we're in the eye of the storm, but the fact Ronaldo had to lower himself to a talk show to lob grenades at a manager who won't play him on reputation alone is actually the greatest compliment he could pay Ten Hag. And it's exactly what United wanted from their new manager.
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