Cristiano Ronaldo deserves the last laugh.
When he left Manchester United almost two years ago, he was subject to an almost universal conviction. Barney Ronay, of The Guardian, summarizing the prospects of many external observers, described him as “selfish” with a personality that was “an anathema for the new United identity” under Erik Ten Hag.
“Manchester United has been a libertine ship, a wax museum of celebrities, treated also as an asset to be tamed and vacuumed,” Ronay wrote.
“Where Ronaldo is that he, Cristiano Ronaldo, is not the cure for this problem. It is the apparent symptom and the greatest human embodiment of this decadence.
“Only by ridding Manchester United of Ronaldo can Ronaldo hope to remedy some of the problems he, Ronaldo, correctly identifies.
“This is one of the most productive news that the club has won in a long time. Ronaldo feels alienated. This, despite everything, it is a sign that the antidote can begin to take effect. “
Even two years away were no obstacle for him as a useful lightning rod for criticism.
Earlier this season, Ten HAG responded directly to Ronaldo that the club “needs to rebuild everything”, revealing that it had been tracking media policy for criticism of the Portuguese star.
“So he’s far away in Saudi, far from Manchester,” was the failed Dutch coach’s snotty reply.
However, as time passes, it is increasingly complicated for those who have turned CR7 into a scapegoat oppose the diagnosis of the striker about his former team.
Ten Hag might have won the FA Cup last season with an impressive performance in a one-off final. Still, this year, there has been no getting away from the fact that the overall performance trajectory is overwhelmingly negative.
The challenge for the Red Devils is that things have not stepped forward since the Dutchman sacked and replaced through Ruben Amorim.
In any case, things have worsened. For the first time since 1961, Manchester United has lost 4 times in succession and now there are seven problems above the descent zone.
Amorim spent his first weeks as Old Trafford boss talking about his shot option, and now, in the most shocking way, his team faces a fight for survival.
“I think it’s a possibility. We have to be transparent with our fans. ” Amorim talked about the danger of descent after an unfortunate 0-2 defeat at home against Newcastle United.
“It is also my fault,” he added in response to a question about whether it was embarrassing for a Manchester United coach to discuss relegation.
“The team is not improving. It is a little bit lost in this moment and it is a bit embarrassing to be Manchester United coach and lose a lot of games.
“Our club wants a surprise and we have to understand it.
“That’s why I also talk about relegation. It’s really clear [the possibility] and we’ll have to fight. It’s a really difficult moment, one of the most complicated moments in Manchester United’s history and we have to do it with Honestly and to be transparent with that, we have to fight [in the next game.
“We don’t have that option in January if we don’t [sell] to some players,” said Amorim. “You know the biggest stage than me. It is not that I come here and can spend effective to convert the team. “
In fairness to Ronaldo, he resisted the impulse to criticize me for being justified in his criticism.
Nor did he attacked Amorim, repeating the same judicial cases he presented in his explosive 2021 interview with Piers Morgan that the club had deep problems.
“The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world,” Ronaldo told the Globe Soccer Awards.
“All groups are fine, all groups fight, all groups run, all players are strong. Football is different at this time. There are no longer simple games.
“I said it a year and it is part of it and I will continue to say it: the challenge is the coaches.
“It’s like an aquarium. If you have an internal fish and it’s in poor health, you take it out, solve the challenge and put it back in an aquarium, it will go back to being in bad health.
“This is that of Manchester United. It is the same.
“If I own the club, I will explain things and adjust what I am bad at there. “
If you take the point of view of Barney Ronay, Ronaldo’s statement that Manchester United can fix if it were the owner is additional evidence of the large ego of the Portuguese superstar.
But since Ronaldo is only one of the most important players of all time, with a longevity that no one can match, but that has also been part of some of the most dominant groups in the modern era, this is an opinion that deserves to be taken into account. Training
The valid counterpoint is that, the management of minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the adjustments take a position in United.
It remains to be seen if those are the known adjustments through Ronaldo so that the club returns to the most sensible.
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