adminOliver Holt in LONDON
CRISTIANO Ronaldo is fortunate that Manchester United ceased some time ago to be a serious football club run by serious football people.
He was once a great player and he has had a quite brilliant career but the truth is that no team who put winning trophies above selling shirts would have indulged him so utterly and so obediently last season as the goons who run the show at Old Trafford.
United gave him a stage his waning powers should not have earned but now it is reported that Ronaldo wants to leave the club because they cannot fulfil his ambition of playing in the Champions League.
It would, perhaps, be indelicate to point out the fact United are not in the competition this season is, in no small part, down to the debilitating effect Ronaldo had on the side when he rejoined last summer.
Ronaldo scored plenty of goals, sure, and those who value the individual more than the team will continue to see that as his vindication.
Others have noted that United scored far fewer goals last season with Ronaldo than they scored the season before without him.
The player became bigger than the team and United struggled even to finish sixth in the Premier League.
Ronaldo scored goals but he did not do much else. At the age of 37, he is a luxury player and luxury players are not viable any more in the Premier League.
Even a casual observer could see that United did not work anywhere near as hard as Manchester City and Liverpool worked last season. They looked like dilettantes up against serious players and Ronaldo set that tone.
So, if Ronaldo does indeed want away, good luck with finding a club who will be prepared to subjugate themselves to his ego and his pulling power as completely as United did last season.
Any club who sign up for that are heading for a world of pain. United, whose other leading players withered around Ronaldo, are still counting the cost of that.
What I don’t understand is why United are not hurrying Ronaldo out of the door. If he wants to leave, drive him to the airport, wish him good luck for the future, thank him for everything he has done for the club over the years and put him on a plane to wherever he wants to go.
He is one of the greatest there has ever been but his greatness lies in the past now, not the present. It is surely only the commercial executives at Old Trafford who want him to stay so that they can continue to use him to front their kit launches and drive their clicks on social media.
United’s new manager, Erik ten Hag, would never be able to say it but Ronaldo leaving would be the best thing that could happen for him as he begins the task of trying to reverse United’s ongoing decline.
Ronaldo was only ever going to be a short-term signing, designed to distract attention from the deeper malaise at the club.
His signing was part of the chaos that enveloped United last season but if they are serious about rebuilding under Ten Hag, they can only do that properly without Ronaldo unless he is prepared to accept a role as an occasional starter and a £500,000-a-week impact sub.
I think we all know the answer to that. Others would say he should be thinking about the MLS rather than the Champions League but as far as United are concerned, his destination is irrelevant. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter