Cristiano Ronaldo (I stay)

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Dante said:
Yep.

Although I think Ole's plan was more to play Cavani as a high presser.

Solskjaer didn't to pull out all the stops to convince Cavani to stay, only to intend bring in Ronaldo at the last second. We'd already moved away from a static CF when we sold Lukaku. It was a complete u-turn on what the manager was trying to build.

Buying Ronaldo was very much a marketing move more than a footballing one. Ole said 'yes' to it because Ronaldo is still a good player. But he quite obviously wasn't planned or especially wanted.

The backlash against dropping Ronaldo showed how political the whole thing became. He's the best example of a white elephant you'll ever see in football.
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I always thought Ole got pressures from every angle. Owners and Woodward thinking about the brand, finances, improving the atmosphere among fans. SAF and former players maybe telling him "don't let Ronaldo join City", probably some players saying "he's my idol, I want to play and learn next to him".

Had he rejected the proposal he would have become the bad sheep of the family with headlines popping up at "The man who rejected the GOAT" and opinions would have been like "He doesn't like winners, he fears Ronaldo becomes more powerful than him, what a loser" etc, the man had no scape.

Even then I think some other managers in his place would have done what's right, vetoing the move and keeping his promise to Cavani after begging him for months to stay. If you leave eventually you do it as a man of his word. I think Ole betrayed some players but mainly he betrayed himself there and his own plans.

How the tactics and roles changed overnight with the season started I think it led to a mass of discontent. That was the start of the end not just for Ole but for this group of players as a whole. Without this chapter maybe we're still the same uninspiring team this season, we win nothing but I doubt we collapse the way we did.

At the same time I can understand Ronaldo joining and seeing how everything starts breaking into pieces around him and surely thinking "what the hell". I have little sympathy for the man but it would be unfair to place the blame on him. This is another chapter of the club being ruled amateurishly and I doubt (despite all the supposed changes taking place) that we have seen the last comedy chapter.
 
Leftback99 said:
Bad news if Chelsea don't want him. We're gonna be stuck with him.
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Yep no chelsea, no bayern, no champions league. Well thats not true, take a huge paycut amd he can play CL with Napoli or Sporting Lisbon....but he wont take that paycut.
 
Phil Osophy said:
I always thought Ole got pressures from every angle. Owners and Woodward thinking about the brand, finances, improving the atmosphere among fans. SAF and former players maybe telling him "don't let Ronaldo join City", probably some players saying "he's my idol, I want to play and learn next to him".

Had he rejected the proposal he would have become the bad sheep of the family with headlines popping up at "The man who rejected the GOAT" and opinions would have been like "He doesn't like winners, he fears Ronaldo becomes more powerful than him, what a loser" etc, the man had no scape.

Even then I think some other managers in his place would have done what's right, vetoing the move and keeping his promise to Cavani after begging him for months to stay. If you leave eventually you do it as a man of his word. I think Ole betrayed some players but mainly he betrayed himself there and his own plans.

How the tactics and roles changed overnight with the season started I think it led to a mass of discontent. That was the start of the end not just for Ole but for this group of players as a whole. Without this chapter maybe we're still the same uninspiring team this season, we win nothing but I doubt we collapse the way we did.

At the same time I can understand Ronaldo joining and seeing how everything starts breaking into pieces around him and surely thinking "what the hell". I have little sympathy for the man but it would be unfair to place the blame on him. This is another chapter of the club being ruled amateurishly and I doubt (despite all the supposed changes taking place) that we have seen the last comedy chapter.
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Agree most of parts. The club has to really restructure itself to avoid the similar situation happening again. Let’s see how the new structure functions.
 
dinostar77 said:
Yep no chelsea, no bayern, no champions league. Well thats not true, take a huge paycut amd he can play CL with Napoli or Sporting Lisbon....but he wont take that paycut.
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There's a reasonably good chance he would take that paycut actually, he dropped already for United... I'm certain he's offered himself to others at a pay cut. But Napoli and Sporting would show a significant drop and I'm not sure his ego would allow for that, just yet... United in Europa is still more prestigious than either of those in the CL.

And he's clearly just going to get casually forgiven anyway, so it's not like he'll get the Rooney treatment.
 
I would have no qualms in benching him for a season and taking the hit. Pulling this stunt so close to the season and showing zero respect for United and his adoring fans is making him look like a real prick.

I would love nothing better than for him to not have clubs clamouring for him and eating a large dose of humble pie. If I was ten Hag I would get a young hungry striker in and get Ronaldo putting the cones out like in Ted Lasso.
 
Phil Osophy said:
I always thought Ole got pressures from every angle. Owners and Woodward thinking about the brand, finances, improving the atmosphere among fans. SAF and former players maybe telling him "don't let Ronaldo join City", probably some players saying "he's my idol, I want to play and learn next to him".

Had he rejected the proposal he would have become the bad sheep of the family with headlines popping up at "The man who rejected the GOAT" and opinions would have been like "He doesn't like winners, he fears Ronaldo becomes more powerful than him, what a loser" etc, the man had no scape.

Even then I think some other managers in his place would have done what's right, vetoing the move and keeping his promise to Cavani after begging him for months to stay. If you leave eventually you do it as a man of his word. I think Ole betrayed some players but mainly he betrayed himself there and his own plans.

How the tactics and roles changed overnight with the season started I think it led to a mass of discontent. That was the start of the end not just for Ole but for this group of players as a whole. Without this chapter maybe we're still the same uninspiring team this season, we win nothing but I doubt we collapse the way we did.

At the same time I can understand Ronaldo joining and seeing how everything starts breaking into pieces around him and surely thinking "what the hell". I have little sympathy for the man but it would be unfair to place the blame on him. This is another chapter of the club being ruled amateurishly and I doubt (despite all the supposed changes taking place) that we have seen the last comedy chapter.
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Only managers with massive authority at their clubs like Pep or Klopp would have been able to say no to that pressure without facing a huge backlash from every side. And yeah, lets not pretend that the majority of the fans, I'd say 95%+ including me, were not celebrating signing Ronaldo (and mainly not letting him go to City) even if in the back of our minds some might have been thinking it might not turn out good.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Nah, this was Ole as much as anyone. At the end of the day, he's a United fan. Bringing Ronaldo back to United was a United fan's wet dream. He was as much behind this transfer as anyone.
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So are you saying you wasn't gassed when Ronaldo came back?
 
Leftback99 said:
Bad news if Chelsea don't want him. We're gonna be stuck with him.
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Wouldn’t be so quick to rule us completely out.

If we strike out on both Dembele and Raphinha there aren’t exactly many options left. We may then panic and try for Ronaldo instead since we need another attacker in addition to Sterling.
 
Amarsdd said:
Only managers with massive authority at their clubs like Pep or Klopp would have been able to say no to that pressure without facing a huge backlash from every side. And yeah, lets not pretend that the majority of the fans, I'd say 95%+ including me, were not celebrating signing Ronaldo (and mainly not letting him go to City) even if in the back of our minds some might have been thinking it might not turn out good.
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Tuchel is saying no to him now...

People who understand that the team comes first would've understood if Ole decided not to sign him. It's only his weird obsessed fan club who'd have complained
 
AndySmith1990 said:
Tuchel is saying no to him now...

People who understand that the team comes first would've understood if Ole decided not to sign him. It's only his weird obsessed fan club who'd have complained
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The key being "now" and Ronaldo being a United's golden boy not Chelsea's ...
 
Amarsdd said:
Only managers with massive authority at their clubs like Pep or Klopp would have been able to say no to that pressure without facing a huge backlash from every side. And yeah, lets not pretend that the majority of the fans, I'd say 95%+ including me, were not celebrating signing Ronaldo (and mainly not letting him go to City) even if in the back of our minds some might have been thinking it might not turn out good.
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I feel the number is more likely 60% celebrating it. Remember the discussion thread becoming hot immediately about if his joining will cost us actually? At least for me, I was very concerned even though not against it. Firstly I read we need to pay 14mil to juventus; then, I read his salary is 450k+ per week. Finally I was reminded he has been 37. I was really worried then.
Even though I was worried then, recently it’s still a shock for me to know almost surely that he has caused the divide in the dressing room.
If he stays,its the worst case scenario.
 
city-puma said:
I feel the number is more likely 60% celebrating it. Remember the discussion thread becoming hot immediately about if his joining will cost us actually? At least for me, I was very concerned even though not against it. Firstly I read we need to pay 14mil to juventus; then, I read his salary is 450k+ per week. Finally I was reminded he has been 37. I was really worried then.
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60% is too low. I'm not just talking about United fans who spend hours on a United forum. And also, can you honestly tell me you were not happy Ronaldo didn't sign for City at the time? For me, I was happy more about that than us actually signing him as like you mentioned I had those concerns as well.
 
RedPed said:
So are you saying you wasn't gassed when Ronaldo came back?
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I wouldn't say I was "gassed" no. How it all unfolded quickly the way it did was an exciting thing. I get excited by big transfers like any fan, and Ronaldo coming back was crazy. I also acknowledged that this could quite possibly be a bad move and one that was made purely out of emotion. And this is something I've said many times since.

Anyway, I fail to see how that's relevant to the comment I made.
 
dinostar77 said:
Yep no chelsea, no bayern, no champions league. Well thats not true, take a huge paycut amd he can play CL with Napoli or Sporting Lisbon....but he wont take that paycut.
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The next thing will be him wanting a loan move to one of those clubs with us paying £400k a week of his wages.
 
BusbyMalone said:
I wouldn't say I was "gassed" no. How it all unfolded quickly the way it did was an exciting thing. I get excited by big transfers like any fan, and Ronaldo coming back was crazy. I also acknowledged that this could quite possibly be a bad move and one that was made purely out of emotion. And this is something I've said many times since.

Anyway, I fail to see how that's relevant to the comment I made.
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Because it's all too easy to say that was a shit signing or the manager/board don't know what they are doing when the player threads are like 500 pages long before the player signs and fans make up new chants etc. We've seen it many times before with LvG, Mourinho, Pogba, Sanchez, Sancho etc.

It's really quite easy to jump on that revisionism train. Not saying you have done that, but that is the reason I asked the question.
 
Garethw said:
The next thing will be him wanting a loan move to one of those clubs with us paying £400k a week of his wages.
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Very likely.

We're stupid to accept that but we're much much more stupid to not. In short we're fecked.
 
Do Chelsea not realise he’s a 20 goal a season striker. Regardless of Joe crap the rest of your team is.
 
RedPed said:
Because it's all too easy to say that was a shit signing or the manager/board don't know what they are doing when the player threads are like 500 pages long before the player signs and fans make up new chants etc. We've seen it many times before with LvG, Mourinho, Pogba, Sanchez, Sancho etc.

It's really quite easy to jump on that revisionism train. Not saying you have done that, but that is the reason I asked the question.
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It's irrelevant what the fans think and how many threads are created, etc. Fans are not in a position of power where their emotional feelings have an impact on the club when it comes to the acquisition of players. It's our prerogative to get carried away. You don't want that from the people at the top. And the signing of Ronaldo was an emotional one and everyone knew that. I don't think that's a case of revisionism. It was not a footballing decision and every man, woman, and child knew that. But, again, fans reserve the right to ignore that and get carried away. The people who buy the players should not get caught up in it.

And I'm' strictly talking about this transfer here. I don't wanna get into the weeds of other players we've bought through the years.
 
Water Melon said:
He has shown his mid-finger to our pre-season, including his coaches and team-mates. Let him rot on the bench and he will feck off for sure. You can't let toxicity go unnoticed or unpunished.
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I would rather trust what Rio's said that it's genuinely a family issue rather than believing the guy who came back quickly to the team after his child died and also continued training at Juventus last summer is now unprofessional.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt. For now.
 
Looks like Ronnie is stuck with us. I'd very much rather we sign a new striker next season when the market will most probably be cheaper, and we are hopefully in the Champions League.
 
Not for nothing but you can see his frustration and apparently ETH is getting frustrated as well with the lack of urgency in signings during this rebuild. He wants to compete and I don’t think he wants to fight for a Europa league spot like last season

Only one signing so far, but nothing to really show United are pushing for a top 4 finish. If anything United have gotten worse With the loss of Pogba and no replacement yet.
 
Looking forward to the debate before the Brighton game as to whether we should be booing Ronaldo or not.
 
BusbyMalone said:
It's irrelevant what the fans think and how many threads are created, etc. Fans are not in a position of power where their emotional feelings have an impact on the club when it comes to the acquisition of players. It's our prerogative to get carried away. You don't want that from the people at the top. And the signing of Ronaldo was an emotional one and everyone knew that. I don't think that's a case of revisionism. It was not a footballing decision and every man, woman, and child knew that. But, again, fans reserve the right to ignore that and get carried away. The people who buy the players should not get caught up in it.

And I'm' strictly talking about this transfer here. I don't wanna get into the weeds of other players we've bought through the years.
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It's not irrelevant at all. You can't praise the board/manager for signing a player then slam said board/manager if he turns out to be shit.

Fans reserve the right to ignore that?? What kind of a statement is that? If Ronaldo had gone to City, I guarantee you, those same fans would have burned OT to the ground. So, basically, the board are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

If we don't sign de Jong, what do you think the fans are going to say? If we sign him and he, along with ten Hag turns out to be a dud and we finish 8th or something, what do you think the fans will also say then?
 
RedPed said:
It's not irrelevant at all. You can't praise the board/manager for signing a player then slam said board/manager if he turns out to be shit.

Fans reserve the right to ignore that?? What kind of a statement is that? If Ronaldo had gone to City, I guarantee you, those same fans would have burned OT to the ground. So, basically, the board are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

If we don't sign de Jong, what do you think the fans are going to say? If we sign him and he, along with ten Hag turns out to be a dud and we finish 8th or something, what do you think the fans will also say then?
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Of course it's irrelevant. Not sure what's so hard to grasp about that. It doesn't matter what the hell the fans thought about this signing. And again, I'm strictly talking about THIS signing. Everyone knew it was an emotional signing and not a footballing one and it's the fans' prerogative to get carried away with it regardless of that fact. The people at the club should not be getting caught up in that. It was not a smart signing, but one fuelled by emotion. Even the people who were excited by it knew this deep down.

It's not revisionism when the thing people were worried about from the start comes to pass.

And who the hell cares how the fans would react if he went to City. The only thing the people in charge of this club need to be focused on is making smart, footballing decisions. This was not one of them.
 
Orc said:
Wouldn’t be so quick to rule us completely out.

If we strike out on both Dembele and Raphinha there aren’t exactly many options left. We may then panic and try for Ronaldo instead since we need another attacker in addition to Sterling.
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Quite likely you will too.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Of course it's irrelevant. Not sure what's so hard to grasp about that. It doesn't matter what the hell the fans thought about this signing. And again, I'm strictly talking about THIS signing. Everyone knew it was an emotional signing and not a footballing one and it's the fans' prerogative to get carried away with it regardless of that fact. The people at the club should not be getting caught up in that. It was not a smart signing, but one fuelled by emotion. Even the people who were excited by it knew this deep down.

It's not revisionism when the thing people were worried about from the start comes to pass.

And who the hell cares how the fans would react if he went to City. The only thing the people in charge of this club need to be focused on is making smart, footballing decisions. This was not one of them.
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No point in going back and forth with what is really a simple principle. It was only not a smart decision because of where we ended up at the end of the season. You're suggesting we get a crystal ball for every transfer decision we make.

If anything the dumb decision was giving the manager's job to Wreck-It Ralf.
 
roseguy64 said:
I would rather trust what Rio's said that it's genuinely a family issue rather than believing the guy who came back quickly to the team after his child died and also continued training at Juventus last summer is now unprofessional.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt. For now.
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This should be at least the minimum. His kid died, he came straight back and played, maybe they're doing their grieving now. Some people have no compassion.
 
RedPed said:
No point in going back and forth with what is really a simple principle. It was only not a smart decision because of where we ended up at the end of the season. You're suggesting we get a crystal ball for every transfer decision we make.

If anything the dumb decision was giving the manager's job to Wreck-It Ralf.
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Well, yes, there is no point going back and forth because you seem to either be willingly misrepresenting what I'm saying or genuinely not getting it. And for the third time, I'm talking strickly about THIS transfer.

And no, it was not a smart decision because...it was not a smart decision. From the very beginning. Again, it's not revisionism when what people were concerned about from the beginning actually came to pass. I.e., this being a transfer motivated purely by emotion and marketing, as opposed to any smart footballing decision. The fans can be forgiven for getting carried away (that's what we do) but the club can't.

There was no crystal ball needed. The attitude from the fans (myself included) was: "you know what, this will probably go south and not work, but feck it" because that's what fans do. Block out the logic and embrace the emotion. The club should have been better.

As for the Ralf comment, yeah, that was awful all around. A complete clusterfeck with no redeeming features, really. Although, I did like the fact that he called it as it was and was straight to the point in his honesty.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Well, yes, there is no point going back and forth because you seem to either be willingly misrepresenting what I'm saying or genuinely not getting it. And for the third time, I'm talking strickly about THIS transfer.

And no, it was not a smart decision because...it was not a smart decision. From the very beginning. Again, it's not revisionism when what people were concerned about from the beginning actually came to pass. I.e., this being a transfer motivated purely by emotion and marketing, as opposed to any smart footballing decision. The fans can be forgiven for getting carried away (that's what we do) but the club can't.

There was no crystal ball needed. The attitude from the fans (myself included) was: "you know what, this will probably go south and not work, but feck it" because that's what fans do. Block out the logic and embrace the emotion. The club should have been better.

As for the Ralf comment, yeah, that was awful all around. A complete clusterfeck with no redeeming features, really. Although, I did like the fact that he called it as it was and was straight to the point in his honesty.
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Well, at least we can agree on something. :D
 
dwd said:
Could be the case but surely the rumours would have been put to bed if so.
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Why, he might not even be talking to his agent or reading the media.

I mean, he's grieving about his son, he needs to be back at work soon, so maybe they've cut themselves off for a while, relieve the pressure a bit?
 
Would not blame the club one bit if they bought him out the remainder of his contract and shown him the door. A small price to pay to not have that type of toxicity stinking up the place all season and undermine what EtH is trying to do before a ball has even been kicked.

I wish this club would just sort itself out once and for all. If I wanted to watch this much drama, I'd watch Corrie ffs.
 
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Amarsdd said:
60% is too low. I'm not just talking about United fans who spend hours on a United forum. And also, can you honestly tell me you were not happy Ronaldo didn't sign for City at the time? For me, I was happy more about that than us actually signing him as like you mentioned I had those concerns as well.
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Tbh, I really don’t care if he joins man city. When he got Rooney red carded, I stopped feeling he would be an important part of this club, even though he contributed greatly for this club after that incident. When people call him legend of this club, I just don’t feel the same at all.
 
Looks like he’ll have to play in the Europa league, the very league he helped us ‘reach’ , he’ll just have to deal with it, unfortunately for everyone involved
 
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