Just imagine the striker we cancelled signing to get Ronaldo. The heights he'd have taken us to.
Obviously nobody knows this strikers name because of course he doesn't actually exist.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
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Just imagine the striker we cancelled signing to get Ronaldo. The heights he'd have taken us to.
Obviously nobody knows this strikers name because of course he doesn't actually exist.
That’s for the club and scouts to figure out. Perhaps we should’ve bought the lad Juve did to replace Ronaldo. Seems at least one club had a plan anyway.
Not just Rashford, but clearly he's got beef with Rashford and Greenwood as well before he did the unthinkable
He said in an interview fairly recently that he will retire at Sporting
Not in the first half, reminded me a bit of the young Ronaldo.
Great first half, not so great second half. People saying “could you imagine what the striker we would’ve gotten instead of him would have done?” A) We weren’t getting a striker, we were going to stick with Cavani and hope Mason would take the roll after him. B) What striker wouldve done anything with 0 service given to him? The striker position is a dependant position and we gave him no service tonight. That is a fact.
So he wants more Ballon D'or but he also wants to retire at Sporting, so clearly there's a gap of couple of years which he thinks he can play at the highest level before he goes to Sporting. Probably wants to go to Sporting when he's 41/42.
Now tell me: which club that can win the CL will take him before he heads over to Sporting? No such club exists. Will he change his plans and go to Sporting now when he's 37 and Messi plays for a stacked PSG? I don't think so. The best thing for his legacy is to retire and he'll understand that in the coming months.
Last ever CL game for United.
He’s nowhere near retirement. He is still too good especially for his age.
Got no service today. Thanks GOAT
prob gonna leave us but it is what it issss
prob gonna leave us but it is what it issss
No Champions League football at Man United next season and Portugal fails to reach the World Cup - most probably.
Give me an honest answer: Where do you see him playing next season? Which club will take him that can afford his wages and win the CL? Will he lower his wages so he can play for a CL contender? What does he have to play for? And is his ego going to allow him to go to Sporting so soon with no aspirations for glory & money?
I'm pretty sure he's staying at United another season, specially after going out against Atlético like that but even then the team does need to sign a striker as Cavani can't be relied upon.
I thought some people were absolutely ridiculous to say we will never win the league again when Fergie retired.
Sadly it is not unlikely that this is our last CL game. I don’t know what’s going on with our club anymore, I am so sad about what our owners have done to this amazing club
Can see him lowering his wages if it means he can compete for the CL. Still has a contest with United and most likely he will be at United next season. A guy who will finish a season as the top scorer of United with 20+ goals is not going to retire. That’s nonsensical.
He does not need the money so I doubt that will be a huge factor going forward especially if he was to go to Sporting he would be playing for Pennie’s.
1000% guarantee he is still playing in a top 5 league next season and probably the year after.
But you keep framing the signing of Ronaldo as an acquisition that stopped us getting someone else. As if somebody else was about to arrive until last minute Ronaldo became available.
Which is complete fiction.
It's not only the owners to blame. The former CEO, past managers, horrid players, and even fans are all to blame for our decline. I include fans because there's no other "elite" club in football where fans would cheer and applaud some of the utter rubbish that we've seen over the past 9 years.I thought some people were absolutely ridiculous to say we will never win the league again when Fergie retired.
Sadly it is not unlikely that this is our last CL game. I don’t know what’s going on with our club anymore, I am so sad about what our owners have done to this amazing club
To think there are actually people who are sad Ronaldo might run away because we're out the CL. The whole Ronaldo situation shows no one learns a damn thing at this club and its infuriating.
No, I’m just speaking to how poor a transfer it was and moreover how it exposes our lack of direction and vision as a club.
I think Ronaldo still does his part well - obviously not as good as 10 years ago - but he could do with some help in terms of service. If he ends up leaving there can't be that many suitors. Wall of text below but in summary I can only imagine him at Manchester United, AC Milan, PSG and Atletico however small the chances are for him joining those sides. Otherwise it's of to MLS, China, Qatar.
Bundesliga - No team will/can have him at the moment.
Ligue 1 - No team will/can have him at the moment.
* Perhaps possible if PSG want to add another Galactico after one of Mbappe/Messi/Neymar departures. Would make sense from a commercial point of view. Could actually make sporting sense as well if Messi + Mbappe leave. Neymar and di Maria feeding Cristiano would make for a success offensively and perhaps even work defensively.
Premier League - Stay with United or leave the league.
Too late now to join City, Liverpool won't have him, Chelsea out of the question.
Serie A - Perhaps AC Milan.
Juventus is a no, Inter are covered up front and usually don't go for players at Ronaldos stage. AC Milan on the other hand have some pedigree when it comes to craming out the last juice out of 30+ players. Ibrahimovic might retire/go back home to Sweden/China or whatever, Giroud is 34 himself and although playing well is not a star name like Ronaldo. Through the years we've seen Ronaldinho, Beckham, the aforementioned Zlatan, Rivaldo etc. join while 30+. Pirlo, Seedorf, Maldini and many more played well past 30 here.
La Liga - No team will/can have him at the moment.
He won't go to Real or Barca. Atletico would be fun, I bet Simeone could use him very well for a couple of years. But they likely can't pay his salary and Ronaldo probably don't want to ruin his Real legacy.
MLS - Every team would want him.
Ronaldo can pick and choose if he wants to live in Miami, Los Angeles or New York.
China - Every team would want him.
Ronaldo can pick and choose if he wants to live in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.
Qatar/Saudi - Every team would want him.
Ronaldo can pick and choose team and location.
Bundesliga - No team will/can have him at the moment.
Ligue 1 - No team will/can have him at the moment.
* Perhaps possible if PSG want to add another Galactico after one of Mbappe/Messi/Neymar departures. Would make sense from a commercial point of view. Could actually make sporting sense as well if Messi + Mbappe leave. Neymar and di Maria feeding Cristiano would make for a success offensively and perhaps even work defensively.
Premier League - Stay with United or leave the league.
Too late now to join City, Liverpool won't have him, Chelsea out of the question.
Serie A - Perhaps AC Milan.
Juventus is a no, Inter are covered up front and usually don't go for players at Ronaldos stage. AC Milan on the other hand have some pedigree when it comes to craming out the last juice out of 30+ players. Ibrahimovic might retire/go back home to Sweden/China or whatever, Giroud is 34 himself and although playing well is not a star name like Ronaldo. Through the years we've seen Ronaldinho, Beckham, the aforementioned Zlatan, Rivaldo etc. join while 30+. Pirlo, Seedorf, Maldini and many more played well past 30 here.
La Liga - No team will/can have him at the moment.
He won't go to Real or Barca. Atletico would be fun, I bet Simeone could use him very well for a couple of years. But they likely can't pay his salary and Ronaldo probably don't want to ruin his Real legacy.
MLS - Every team would want him.
Ronaldo can pick and choose if he wants to live in Miami, Los Angeles or New York.
China - Every team would want him.
Ronaldo can pick and choose if he wants to live in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.
Qatar/Saudi - Every team would want him.
Ronaldo can pick and choose team and location.
No you're attaching a wider blame to Ronaldo. Stuff like no trophies, no top four, linking that to his signing.
If we didn't sign Ronaldo we were going in to this season with the exact same squad but without him.
Would that be better?
Impossible to say, isn't it?
We have no way of knowing whether his presence has disrupted the dressing room atmosphere or whether it's not made a bit of difference.
What we do know is we've had a miserable failure of a season with him in the team, at the cost of nearly half a million quid a week for his services. What was the point? Fact is we signed a 37 year old striker based on commercial value, our ego, and sentimentality. The most pertinent issue with that is that it again reeks of lack of planning within the club.
He's not the problem, he's one of the problems I think.
He's not, and never be a number 9. Don't act like a 9, don't make runs like a 9. Original sin was to sign him knowing that with his aura we would not be able to sub him, rest him etc.
He's not developed a technical relation with any players in 7 months which is pretty hard for a 9, but look at the rest of the ship...
Sancho his adapting slowly, Rashford is the Ligue 1 player at best, Pogba is Pogba, Bruno has been really poor most of the season, Shaw or any other full back pretty poor too, so really difficult to thrive in those conditions, and having score 15+ goals is amazing.
He's not, and never be a number 9. Don't act like a 9, don't make runs like a 9. Original sin was to sign him knowing that with his aura we would not be able to sub him, rest him etc.
He's not developed a technical relation with any players in 7 months which is pretty hard for a 9, but look at the rest of the ship...
Sancho his adapting slowly, Rashford is the Ligue 1 player at best, Pogba is Pogba, Bruno has been really poor most of the season, Shaw or any other full back pretty poor too, so really difficult to thrive in those conditions, and having score 15+ goals is amazing.
Why is it impossible?
Without signing him we'd have played almost an entire season without a centre forward.
You're telling me you find it impossible to say if that would make us better or worse?
You think we even have that game last night without signing Ronaldo?
It's been an awful season but it would have been even worse had we not signed Ronaldo.
What was the point of his signing if not immediate success ? It was a massive waste of resources which could’ve been put toward a player to rely on every match this season and in the future.
I don’t get why you’re having trouble understanding that point. It’s pretty fecking simple. The fact that the club probably wouldn’t have signed a younger player doesn’t mean we couldn’t have or shouldn’t have.
He will deliver some moments of brilliance, as last weekend, but still believe he was the wrong signing. He doesnt help the team, and when he is poor or marked out of game like last night he offers nothing. Too slow when he drifts out wide. Huge waste of money, unsettles dressing room. Need to go in summer so we can focus on a proper rebuild.
Maguire headbutting him and almost knocking his teeth out summed up his return nicely. We are not making the CL next season, so it's fair to say this is the last time we saw him in a United shirt in that competition. I just hope it's not his last CL game ever. I mean, going out like this at the hands of Atletico of all teams. A shame it hand to end this way, but Manchester United are the best club in the world at disappointment and ruination.
No one player equals immediate success. Look at how many other problems we have.
What the club should have done is a fair question.
But the actual reality is that no other player was being signed.
So in the real world this season it was this current squad with Ronaldo added or not.
Which would you prefer?
In the real world we could’ve just bought Vlahovic instead of bailing Juve out of Ronaldo’s massive contract and effectively funding their purchase of Vlahovic.
I’m done with this discussion now if you can’t get that very simple point which I have made more times than I would like now.
Seemed to be popping up all over the ship last night, meaning that at times we had no one in the box.
One of the few who put a decent lick in I thought, but essentially we had almost no decent chances.
One of the few who put a decent lick in I thought, but essentially we had almost no decent chances.
There’s feck all to say Vlahovic would have done any different in this team and as far as I’m aware we weren’t ever in for him. Might as well pick any player in the world performing well and say we should have got them, nothing argument.
This sums it up perfectly. He's the type of player that needs the ball in the box if we want him to be useful. Other than that, chapeau to him for the effort he put in, especially in the first half.
Seemed like Bruno was running into the box to act as a second striker, was a weird set up but I think it was the instructions they were given, it looked tactical rather than Ronaldo aimlessly drifting.
Yes because he was such a secret after scoring nearly 30 goals last season.
And Ronaldo scored 36 last season.
This whole discsussion is reflective of our current transfer strategy, namely a mess and all over the place. We signed Ronnie for shirt sales and the general nostalgia trip, with Fergie also seemingly getting involved. If we had a coherent strategy and proper DoF, it would never have happened. Over £20m wasted in my view, was never going to bring us trophies given glaring weaknesses elsewhere in the team and in the dug out, still no defensive midfielder despute the glaring weaknesses there that the odd good game from Fred cannot hide. Obviously we couldnt foresee the Greenwood scenario, but we should either be developing youth or focusing on good signings of promising players. He will be off in summer I am sure.
At the age of 36. And offers absolutely nothing Vlahovic does on and off the ball. And guess who has scored more goals this season and who will score more for seasons to come.
We need to stop signing players at the end of their careers, not only that but paying them mega bucks. Cavani worked for first season but was also a stop gap as we had failed to sign a more experienced forward. Ronaldo simply did not fill a clear role in the squad so should NOT have been signed, but was another panicked move by the clueless morons running the club. Full stop.
You’re implying he’d score more for United though in a harder league which you have no clue if you’re right or wrong, more likely to be wrong as last year’s stats show.
Except for the clear role as striker he’s been playing all season as we have absolutely no one else to play there.
I’m implying that he’s the better player who could actually be relied on consistently. And not just now but in the future as well. Rather than a 37 year old publicity stunt.
Sure come back to me when Vlahovic picks up his fifth Ballon D’Or or fifth Champion’s League medal sure.
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