A legend but not high in the list of united legends.
Is Cristiano Ronaldo a United legend? | Poll added
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Sums it up nicely.
He's a Real Madrid legend
Easily yes. He was the best player in the world when he was here, during which he won every major club trophy. One would have to completely distort the definition of legend to exclude him.
This forum has lost the plot. Recently I'm seeing Rooney, Ronaldo and Beckhams legendary status at the club being questioned, while someone like Neville are cited as obvious legends without question, seriously what's wrong with some of you people?
Ronaldo gave us 3 seasons of bliss. Incredible years in which we achieved a lot. At the same time he was in the top 3 players in world football in all those years. Sure, he left but that doesn't take away those years. They are probably the best 3 year period in our clubs fabled history.
Rooney has given 10+ years to the club. Most of them he was either our best player or second best player. He was a key member of the squad during our most successful period. He has the third highest G+A/games ratio in the prem era. He's our third highest scoring player in club history. He's almost always played with passion and an incredible will to win.
Beckham was one of our best players during an extremely successful era of the club. He played here for something like 7 seasons as a started. He gave his all for the club for the majority of his time here. A perennial member of ballon d'or's top 10 during a time.
In a lot of ways these players represent what this club is all about. They put it all on the line and won an incredible amount of trophies. All with them being key players in that. Yet people dare question whether they're legends? This is madness.
Ronaldo gave us 3 seasons of bliss. Incredible years in which we achieved a lot. At the same time he was in the top 3 players in world football in all those years. Sure, he left but that doesn't take away those years. They are probably the best 3 year period in our clubs fabled history.
Rooney has given 10+ years to the club. Most of them he was either our best player or second best player. He was a key member of the squad during our most successful period. He has the third highest G+A/games ratio in the prem era. He's our third highest scoring player in club history. He's almost always played with passion and an incredible will to win.
Beckham was one of our best players during an extremely successful era of the club. He played here for something like 7 seasons as a started. He gave his all for the club for the majority of his time here. A perennial member of ballon d'or's top 10 during a time.
In a lot of ways these players represent what this club is all about. They put it all on the line and won an incredible amount of trophies. All with them being key players in that. Yet people dare question whether they're legends? This is madness.
Presumably because his move away never materialised. If it had, we'd be talking about a completely different scenario. And it's hardly an implausible one either, since there's a real possibility that it could've happened.
Also, I don't really get the bit about our squad deteriorating. We declined from our 2006-2009 period, but in Fergie's final four years we still won two titles, reached a CL final, and never lost the league by more than a point. It's not as if Rooney stuck it out with some meddling side that were consistently finishing 6th/7th under Fergie. He was playing for a title winning side while on a ridiculously high wage. Certainly, I'm not sure he'd have realistically been able to be the key star for any side better than us.
Sir Alex let the quality decline? That's football. He built a squad capable of winning everything, it would decline and then he would do it all fecking over again. We went from having Keane, Robson, Hughes, and Cantona, to Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, Stam, and Solskjaer to having Van Nistelrooy, Rooney, Ronaldo, Van Der Sar, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra to having De Gea, Robin Van Persie, Kagawa and on and on it goes. At the worst we'd be playing Bellion or Bebe and at our best we'd be playing RVP, RVN, or Ronaldo
He left us with the squad that had just won the league for christ's sake, yet you know what else he left us with? Youth.
De Gea 22
Buttner 24
Rafael 23
Fabio 23
Jones 21
Smalling 23
Zaha 20
Januzaj 18
Cleverley 24
Welbeck 22
You can't have it both ways. Sir Alex could either leave us with a young squad capable of going on to win many things, or he could leave us with the old guard ready to drop off.
And Ronaldo didn't leave because of the declining quality. Ronaldo leaving WAS the declining quality. It's an absolutely ridiculous assertion. It's actually Rooney who you say "stuck it out" at United that has criticised us for not buying big names, just like RVN did.
If all Rooney can do is stick it out with poor old us, then he should leave and leave now. United isn't a place for pity. United is a place for the ruthless to be ruthless, for the bold to be brilliant, for the good to be great. Loyalty comes into it, but not at all costs. There is a reason that we kept Giggs, Scholes and Neville around year after year, and it's a similar reason to why we won title after title. And it's the same reason that Keane is gone. Beckham is gone. RVN is gone.
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As much as a player being synonymous for another club can detract from their legendary status at another one, I don't see why a player can't feasibly be a legend for more than one club. Kenny Dalglish is a Liverpool legend, but plenty of Celtic fans would also regard him as one of their greats. You could make an argument that Cruyff is both an Ajax and Barcelona legend. Zidane could be considered as being a legend for both Juventus and Real Madrid. Shevchenko is both a Dynamo Kiev and AC Milan legend. Marco Van Basten could be seen as an Ajax and AC Milan legend.
Even in a managerial sense, Fergie is a legend for both Man United and Aberdeen. Clough managed to be a legend for two rival clubs, in Forest and Derby.
Granted, I do think there's a decent debate over whether Ronaldo's a United legend, but him being one for Real Madrid doesn't automatically mean he can't be one for United as well.
To me a legend is someone you're going to talk about when they've gone. The ones you'll tell the next generation about. The sort who when you get to the end of a conversation about a great newcomer, you'll say: He's good but you never saw x - now he was a player.
Ronaldo passes those tests easily.
Ronaldo passes those tests easily.
Easily for me, led us to such a successful period for the club. Those seasons wouldn't have happened without him. The progression he made at the club was unbelievable.
I understand that but what do we do with Anderson because we are going to talk about him for a long time. Bebe too.
Fair enough on the first part, if thats how you see it. I don't agree but understand where you're coming from.
Can't say agree with the second part either to be honest but different strokes and all that.
It really depends on your definition of legend, none of these is for me, neither would Neville. Beckham for example isn't fit to lace Robson's boots, it's not about the number of medals that they have.
Great player undisputed.
Legend = Cantona, Best, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Charlton
Legend = Cantona, Best, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Charlton
+ Robson
I'm greatly surprised at the number of people who don't consider him a United legend, I thought this would be unanimous. His 3 seasons from 06-09 were probably the greatest by a player in a United shirt and he managed to win the ballon d'Or once, win the league three straight times, got to 1 semi, 2 finals in Europe, while winning one. That in itself should clear any doubts of his status with the club.
If you need any extra incentive, Neville thought he owed Ronaldo his PL medal for the 2007-08 season in his autobiography, Ferguson has a chapter in his own book dedicated to him and he was one of the few people requested to speak at Ferguson's retirement despite him being at a different club. The supporters still love him and sing his name at games (they even sing Forlan's name but its not the same).
You don't necessarily have to stay at the club for your life to be considered a club legend.
If you need any extra incentive, Neville thought he owed Ronaldo his PL medal for the 2007-08 season in his autobiography, Ferguson has a chapter in his own book dedicated to him and he was one of the few people requested to speak at Ferguson's retirement despite him being at a different club. The supporters still love him and sing his name at games (they even sing Forlan's name but its not the same).
You don't necessarily have to stay at the club for your life to be considered a club legend.
Of course he is. Won us the CL for only the third time, scored 42 goals in a season, was the best player in the world. Probably the best season a player has had in the history of United. It will be remembered forever.
People shouldn't confuse legend with "staying at the club for a long time". Those seem to be the only legends for some people.
People shouldn't confuse legend with "staying at the club for a long time". Those seem to be the only legends for some people.
Well no one's going to talk about Anderson in fifty years time. Bebe, you're right, he is a legend. He's our Ali Dia.I understand that but what do we do with Anderson because we are going to talk about him for a long time. Bebe too.
It didn't happen cause he signed contracts and stayed. Any real possibility got neutered by him deciding that he's staying at the club.
We all know the quality of the squad drastically declined after Ronnie left. We had Valencia, Park and hernandez starting in the CL final in '11. Giggs in midfield. That stuff wouldn't have happened in 06-09.
Chelsea won the title last season, almost won it the season before but I'd say the squad currently compared to the ones in the mid 00's isn't worthy of being discussion.
Fan(atic)-legend, yes.
Club-legend, no.
Club-legend, no.
Madness. There are very few players whom beckham isn't fit to lace their boots, and the vast majority have ballon d'or's. Its not about medals, its about the performance levels they had at the club.
How is he a legend? He was a brilliant player for us but he left aged only 24 to play for Madrid. He's a legend there.
In my eyes, yes. Great player, loved by most united fans, fans still sing his name like other legends, only player in England to win the FIFA WPOTY.
That has nothing to do with it. He was at United longer than Cantona was.
Cantona was only here for 5 years, Ronnie 6.
Cantona brought us our first league title in 26 years and for that he will be forever adored, but Ronnie brought us our third European Cup
Granted, he'll be remembered as a great player, but you surely can't be putting him in the same bracket as Charlton, Giggs, Scholes etc. by calling him a club legend?
If you want then yea
Everyone has their own opinion on what makes a legend, there is no right answer as it's far too subjective. Could debate some players for years and still get no common ground. In my opinion, he is a legend but yes, I would rank those players higher but that doesn't take away from where I place Ronaldo.
During Sir Alex's first transition(from cantona era to keane era), the quality of the squad didn't decline. In fact, it got better. The second one(the keane era to the Ronaldo era), it got worse, then it got great. The last one(Ronaldo era to rooney era), he never got it to where he had gotten his first two great teams. His last incarnation was never capable of winning everything. Did it even win two trophies in a season?
Out of that youth only Smalling and De Gea have become anything significant. 6 have been deemed not good enough for the club and haven't gone on to bigger better things elsewhere.
Or he could have left us with a quality team in their prime with the capability of winning more. He didn't, hence the following managers have had to chop and change the squad so much since he left. Everyone with a decent pair of eyes could tell you that, that squad that won our last title was nothing special. A Van Persie and Carrick playing outrageous football aided by the best keeper in the land got us there. The others didn't amount to much through the season.
Ronaldo was the decline in quality along with Tevez and our other stars of that time becoming old, ineffective and not properly replaced. The gambles that were taken at that time didn't work out. Even when Ronaldo was here, from the 07/08 team to the one the very next season, we had declined a bit. When he left, some got old, Tevez left too then things got progressively worse in terms of the quality at the club.
Rooney was right, most fans were saying the same damn thing and once he said it, fans got all hypocritical and hated him for it. Why dislike a player for saying what you're thinking? Tevez+Ronaldo out and Owen, Obertan and Valencia in...what's he supposed to think?
He did criticise the club and rightfully so. The same way fans have been doing for years about the same thing. He then STAYED. Yes, he STAYED. That Ronaldo bloke left long, long ago.
Great player but never a legend. You can't be a legend when you ask to leave in your prime. ffs
Funny, because in 2009 we started Giggs, Park and Anderson in the CL final for us. So yeah, that stuff did happen between 06-09. I'm not denying that there was a drop-off: there evidently was. But it's not as if Rooney was playing for some lowly club who he was better than. He was still playing for a title winning side which was competing in Europe, and wouldn't have been a key player at any club significantly better than us.
Without question one of Uniteds best players, but he wasn't here long enough to be a Legend.
A legend to me is someone that occupies an exalted position in the club or one who has brought us exceptional glory. Well Ronaldo is the only United player ever to be awarded the best footballer in the world award so that in itself qualifies him as a legend to me.
We've been irrelevant as a European power since '11. He'd have been a key player at any of the other top european clubs.
Nah, he'd have played second fiddle to Messi at Barca, and would've struggled to fit into their system. Likewise playing second fiddle to Ronaldo at Real Madrid. I'm not particularly sure he'd offer Bayern anything that their strikers didn't in that period.
He's been at his level here. He's hardly been a one-man team pulling us up from mediocrity. Between 2011-2015, he's had one season in which he was our best player.
Probably. Pointless question done to death though.
Some people on here don't even class Becks as a 'legend'.
Not the kind of opinion that matters in the grand scheme of things though.
Some people on here don't even class Becks as a 'legend'.
Not the kind of opinion that matters in the grand scheme of things though.
You can't be both? I'm truly gobsmacked by how many posters don't think he's a United legend. He's won everything with you and became the best player in the world aswell. I don't know what you'd have to do to become a legend if he isn't one. United had one of their best spells when he started to become the player he is today. I think people have forgotten how good he actually was because he didn't score the insane amount of goals he does now.
Yes, the catalyst to the 3 back to back title wins and the CL win, he gave the whole team confidence as he was the very best and all the other players knew he could produce a special moment to win us tight games. On top of that while being central to that impressive run of success he was one of the most exciting players ever to wear a United shirt.
Yes because of his level and what he did for us. But he will never be higher because of Madrid.
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