Manchester United reputedly gained one million Instagram followers when they re-signed Cristiano Ronaldo. Should Ronaldo ever bother to clear out his locker at Carrington, his followers will also clear off.
Ronaldo’s presence and voice carry such immense weight even some time-served United fans are edging towards his corner, brainwashed by the rhetoric during his interview with Piers Morgan.
One of the pertinent questions this correspondent intended to ask Ronaldo when he rejoined United was what gave such a serial winner confidence he could win with a club that was certain to stray close to five trophyless years?
Read more: Ronaldo names three United players he admires
Ronaldo was not presented to the press and has never attended a pre-match Champions League or Europa League press conference. He has been off limits other than to the odd rights holder.
Sources at the club said he was receptive to media engagements until October last year. Ie. the month he skulked off after not starting in the draw with Everton, the 4-2 trouncing by Leicester and 5-0 evisceration by Liverpool.
Last season, Ronaldo was not a problem and had he put his head above the parapet more often his argument about the club's demise would have been more credible and balanced. Ronaldo struck 24 goals, placed the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year statue back on his mantlepiece and was voted in the Premier League's Team of the Year.
This season, Ronaldo has become the problem and is lingering on the past while United are progressing in the present. He has scored one Premier League goal from open play since April 28.
If Ronaldo so abhorred the Glazer family’s ownership he would not have changed course from the Etihad to Old Trafford. If he wanted a plusher gym and a sound structure, he would have ignored the oar Sir Alex Ferguson stuck in and worn Manchester blue.
United’s training complex at Carrington is not the best-in-class it once was and they have been behind the curve in modernising it. As a club, it is undeniable they have stood still at every level of their infrastructure since before Ferguson retired. The rot truly set in with Ronaldo's £80million sale to Real Madrid in 2009.
Carrington is still a working environment any footballer (other than Ronaldo) would appreciate. “It’s lovely,” a source close to one senior United player said. The gym has unquestionably changed from Ronaldo's first spell, albeit the renovation was completed in the summer.
Carping on about the Glazers and the facilities is old news and rendered hollow as it is aired by a disgruntled employee. He allowed his heart to overrule his head when they allowed a retired 79-year-old to influence their transfer strategy. Now he is peddling a narrative with more plotholes than a Marvel film. Ronaldo sounded as though he had been programmed by the starstruck PR who helped curate brand Beckham.
This is no Glazer propaganda piece. The Manchester Evening News is the only media outlet MUTV have failed to invite onto their Pravda debate show (“because you would actually debate”, as one club employee said) and there have been a plethora of excoriating pieces penned by this correspondent and colleagues condemning and criticising the family’s corrosive 17-and-a-half year ownership.
The dedicated correspondents on the Manchester patch are certainly more informed and objective than Morgan, more cheerleader than interviewer as he delivered underarm for Ronaldo to punt into oblivion.
Morgan claimed Ralf Rangnick "briefed journalists" (utterly untrue) and did not challenge Ronaldo on two stories in the summer filed by a journalist who is briefed by the Gestifute agency Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes runs. The reporter wrote Ronaldo had requested to leave United and that he appreciated “the gentler touch” of United chief executive Richard Arnold. So how does Ronaldo feel betrayed? Morgan was never going to ask.
It is a basic rule of interviewing that you know your subject and fact-check. Morgan was an unofficial spokesman for the British public when he held Tories to account for their obfuscation during the grimmest months of the pandemic, but there is a reason why Ronaldo and Donald Trump have held court with him. He is their fawning friend (or was, in Trump’s case).
Morgan’s interview with Talk Sport on Monday morning was riddled with inaccuracies that he was not corrected on. He did not challenge Ronaldo on the following:
- On July 5, The Times report the story ‘Cristiano Ronaldo tells Manchester United: It’s time for me to leave’. So did Ronaldo want to leave or not?
- When Ronaldo returned to Carrington for the first time since May on July 25, why was he accompanied by Mendes?
- United have beaten Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, and drawn with Chelsea, without Ronaldo starting in any of those games. Does he accept United have improved without him?
- United have lost two, drawn one and won one with Ronaldo as a starter in the Premier League. Is it fair to say they are worse with him?
- Ronaldo has scored three goals this season. He had scored nine United goals this time last season. Overall, he has three goals in 16 United games in 2022-23. Is that form worthy of a starting role?
Erik ten Hag has publicly respected Ronaldo time and again. He has said, “We are planning for Cristiano Ronaldo for the season and I'm looking forward to working with him” and “We are happy with him”. Ten Hag explained Ronaldo “wasn’t brought on out of respect for his big career” at Manchester City and that he was “really happy for him, I congratulate him” on scoring his 700th club goal.
Ten Hag refused to single out Ronaldo in the fallout from his early departure during the friendly against Rayo Vallecano and he was unhappy about the Football Association's belated charge over an incident involving Ronaldo and a fan at Everton last season. Ten Hag dubbed Ronaldo a “leader” mere weeks ago and promoted him to captain at Villa Park on November 6.
Privately, Ronaldo doubtless senses Ten Hag does not afford him the same venerable treatment as other coaches have. United needed that, though: a disciplinarian with the authority to handle the dressing room's egomaniacs. Ronaldo has underestimated Ten Hag too many times.
This has been a traumatic personal year for Ronaldo and anyone with a child has the utmost empathy for the unimaginably sad situation he and his family experienced in April. Ronaldo spoke movingly to Morgan about the death of his baby boy, Angel, how he speaks to the urn that holds his son's ashes. That any father should have to inform his children their sibling has "gone to heaven" is an unthinkable emotional burden.
From the wreckage of United's 2021-22 season - and Ronaldo was one of the few to emerge unscathed - Ten Hag has done a laudable job. United are not where they want to be and remain a work in progress but are three points off fourth place in the Premier League with a game in hand, through to the next round of the League Cup and into the knockout stage of the Europa League.
Morgan, an ardent Arsenal fan, should recognise the benefits of a club cutting their losses on superstar players. Arsenal are a serious side for the first time in 18 years now Mikel Arteta is free of Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Read more:
