Gary Neville condemns 'f*****g unforgivable' leaks from Man United players and agents, telling stars to 'stop whinging, shut your mouths and work harder' following claims Erik Ten Hag had lost the dressing room before win over Chelsea

Gary Neville has blasted the dressing room at Manchester United and told players to 'stop whinging, shut your mouths and work harder' in a stunning rebuke. 

The former Red Devils defender's comments came after reports that Erik ten Hag had lost the support of half the dressing room at Old Trafford due to his management style. 

The club responded by banning several high-profile journalists, including Sky Sports chief reporter Kaveh Solekhol, the Manchester Evening News' chief United correspondent Samuel Luckhurst, The Mirror's David McDonnell and Rob Dawson of ESPN, from the Dutchman's press conference ahead of their clash against Chelsea on Wednesday night. 

Neville waded into the contentious issue and expressed his belief that leaks are the ultimate betrayal of a football club.

'I've been soft on the players for 12 months because I've concentrated on the rotten environment and the ownership.' He said on the Stick to Football podcast. 'I think there are difficulties at the club for the players to succeed with everything that's around them, I don't think anything's right. 

'But the biggest betrayal you can have in football dressing room is when players or players' representatives are going to the media to undermine the manager and other players. 

'Honestly this is f*****g unforgivable. So when I heard these stories coming out I thought "here we go again, the f*****s. They're at it, they're going to try and get another manager sacked, another group of players thrown out". 

'You know it's happening and you can tell it's been fed and I thought "stop whinging, shut your mouths, work as hard as you can and the day after, come back and do it again".

'That's it. I have got some sympathy with them at the moment with the club and how it is with what's going on, the continual poor recruitment, negativity, bad ownership, lack of sporting department and lack of all the stuff they've got. 

'I've given them a pretty easy ride but I've got no sympathy if they're leaking stories or they're being late.'

United's stars gave a strong indication that they were with their manager with an impressive performance in their 2-1 win over Chelsea. 

Scott McTominay proved to be the match winner for the home side, who also missed a first-half penalty from Bruno Fernandes. 

The Scotland international, who took his tally for club and country to eight after his brace, insisted the players were keen to perform well for Ten Hag.

'We're sticking together and trusting in the manager's ideas and how he wants us to play, which in my opinion, is a really good idea.' He told the BBC. 

'All the players see that as well. It might not come across that way in the way we play sometimes but we've got full faith and we want to keep pushing and do well for him.'