I think we might be going around in circles here because you said in an earlier message that you don't trust the media and I'm assuming you are a big Ronaldo fan and wont hear a bad word against him. Furthermore, I'm guessing what is going on behind the scenes at Man United, but so are you.
You really do like your assumptions, do you. Just to get that one out of way: I have absolutely nothing with Ronaldo and couldn't believe it when he was re-signed by United last year. But that's besides the point. Let's get to your sources.
The fact is, four days ago the Telegraph, which is a respectable newspaper, said this:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...eptable-cristiano-ronaldo-leaving-manchester/
"Erik ten Hag has slammed Cristiano Ronaldo over his “unacceptable” behaviour after the wantaway striker made an early exit from Manchester United’s friendly against Rayo Vallecano.
And United’s problems on the eve of the new season were piling up with Chelsea attempting to hijack their protracted move for Ten Hag’s No. 1 transfer target Frenkie de Jong.
Ten Hag was left fuming after Ronaldo - who wants to quit the club - and some of his United team-mates left before the end of Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Vallecano.
Asked if Ronaldo and the other players involved would be fined, United sources said the situation was an internal disciplinary matter but Ten Hag made no attempt to hide his anger in an interview with Dutch television.
“I certainly don’t condone this,” Ten Hag told Viaplay Sport Netherlands. “This is unacceptable. For all those involved. We are a team and that means you have to stay until the end [of the game].”
The actual video has been posted here in this thread. Ten Hag
does not talk about Ronaldo specifically. The Telegraph, like all English media (see also the pre-match press conference) have been focusing in on Ronaldo individually, but Ten Hag never did that. He continually keeps saying that it was
not just Ronaldo and that the focus on him is bad reporting.
That does seem to single out Ronaldo, but if as you say, he hasn't done that, well my response would be this: the people above him have told him not to, because they want Ronaldo to stay for commercial reasons, not footballing ones.
And that's where your own bias shines through. Why are you not even willing to consider the option that Ten Hag is speaking the truth? That there were multiple players, and that he thinks that, this first time this occurred, a stern rebuke was enough?
As regards treating all the players who left early the same - well he obviously wont do that, because apart from Ronaldo, the others had played on Saturday not Sunday & that has been explained repeatedly. That Dalot and Bruno Fernandes were lead astray by CR7 is yet another reason to hold Christiano to account, in my opinion. Finally I think United have a better chance of getting a result vs Brighton today without Ronaldo, rather than than with him - he can't be fit having only had 45 mins pre-season - but without Ronaldo, Dalot and Bruno and maybe others (who I don't know about) well they might be struggling. Brighton do expect to play against 11 today, not 5!
Here even more your bias shines through. We all know basically nothing about what happened during that game, apart from that some players left. But here you're positing that it was Ronaldo that led Dalot and Bruno 'astray'. How do you know it's them and that Ronaldo would have influenced them? To give you just one other option: maybe a bunch of those Saturday players proposed to leave, and Ronaldo figured he might as well join them. That's completely as hypothetical as your scenario - both of which are completely made up by you and me.
I don't trust it quite as much as the Telegraph, but this is in the Express today:
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/foo...aldo-Erik-ten-Hag-Brighton-team-news-transfer
Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol makes a good point: that ETH brought in 5 strict rules and if you break them you don't play. One is lateness and Ronaldo was certainly late to pre-season!
“So if you’re late you can’t play, but if you don’t even bother going to training and missing the whole pre-season you can still play? You make rules, you’re putting yourself on the line and now he has put himself right on the line Ten Hag. The fact that Martial is injured, he maybe has no choice but at the same time if he plays him, then people should start questioning him.
As others have pointed out, Ronaldo wasn't late, he was given an exemption, as Ten Hag time and again said. But here again, your bias shines through, cause you responded to those posters that this must have been the club going over Ten Hag's head by giving Ronaldo permission for this absence. Where's your actual evidence for that? You know nothing about Ronaldo's possible reasons for the absence, and nothing about what conversations may or may not have been had inside the club. So why make up such a dramatic story, that basically already leads to a write-off of the season and the Ten Hag?
The key is this, with Martial injured should ETK risk going back on his own strong discipline and pick Ronaldo. I say NO - pick a youth player if necessary. If he does pick Ronaldo, the season will be just the same as last time.... we all thought Ralf Rangnick sounded good in his first press-conference, we all thought he was starting out well stamping down on poor body language/petulance... but look what happened to him.
Just to wrap this up, I think your strong conviction that playing Ronaldo will hurt the team (which I would tend to agree with; I don't see him functioning well in a Ten Hag team - but then Haller did kinda work at Ajax), as well as your obvious dislike for Ronaldo (at this stage in his career, anyway) are leading you to spin a narrative you like. But as far as I can tell, you're really just fabricating stories.
