MANCHESTER United’s dressing room was bugged before their match at Aston Villa in a shocking security breach.
A prankster claims he hoodwinked Villa Park staff to sneak in and plant a hidden device two days before the 0-0 draw last Sunday.
It recorded under-fire manager Erik ten Hag’s team talks for the crunch Premier League game.
Aston Villa immediately launched an investigation after The Sun alerted the club yesterday.
A source said: “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.
“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 Sun has heard the recordings but is choosing not to publish details of them.
However, we can reveal Ten Hag’s instructions to the team and individual players can clearly be heard.
The Sun understands the prankster used a phone from China that has a setting where a microphone can be activated by calling it from another device.
He had 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.
High alert
Sources claimed the culprit responsible even had the nerve to collect the device on Monday.
It is a similar stunt to the one that saw a Match of the Day studio hit with porn noises while live on air in 2023.
That was the work of Daniel “Jarvo” Jarvis.
However, it is believed that he had no involvement in the Villa recordings.
The latest stunt comes with Premier League chiefs already on high alert after a string of pranks targeting stadiums and teams.
In May, United were targeted by YouTuber Lizwani - who previously got on stage at the Baftas alongside the Oppenheimer cast.
He managed to sneak on to the Red Devils’ team bus after a 4-0 hammering at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park.
Lizwani brazenly took a seat before he was removed.
That breach led to Prem bosses firing off alerts to the top flight’s 20 clubs advising them to watch out for similar stunts.
A source said: “These people are mostly harmless and doing it for a bit of fun.
“They are doing it to get a load of hits on YouTube and make their fans laugh. They aren’t trying to cause trouble or do harm to anyone.”
Manchester United have suffered their worst start to a Premier League season, sitting in 14th on just eight points after seven games.
Ten Hag, 54, told the media after the game at Villa he was “very pleased” with the performance.
It came off the back of a 3-3 draw at Porto in the Europa League - where they blew a 2-0 lead - and a 3-0 pummelling by Spurs at Old Trafford.
Seven hour meeting
The Villa 0-0 was the Red Devils’ fifth game without a win - their last being a 7-0 Carabao Cup win over League One side Barnsley.
It is a far cry from the glory days of former manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who famously called high-pressure moments “squeaky bum time”.
The United hierarchy — including co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe — held a seven-hour meeting at Old Trafford last week with Ten Hag’s future up in the air.
They have remained silent over the manager’s position, with Sir Jim recently failing to publicly back him.
However, Ten Hag — currently on holiday during the international break — insists he still has the bosses’ support.
He said: “I don’t have any idea that is different because they should have told me.
“We communicate — very open, very transparent. I would say every day we talk, so I expect I will speak with them.”
He dismissed the “external noise”, adding: “Internal, we are disappointed.
“We know we have to do better. Especially, we need to score more.”
In 2016, Old Trafford suffered a bomb scare after a dummy device planted by a security company was found in a a toilet.
The fiasco led to United’s Premier League game against Bournemouth being called off.
Man Utd and Aston Villa were approached for comment yesterday.
