Of course they can’t.
You might find a few athletes that could do it after years of training but they’d be in the minority.
The comprehensive Ronaldo thread
- Thread starter Red the Bear
- Start date
Of course they can’t.
You might find a few athletes that could do it after years of training but they’d be in the minority.
His performances are so irrelevant now that people are debating over what was he crying about 14 years ago.
Anyway I'm glad he quit the club before the World Cup. Thanks Mrs. Doubtfire.
Now that he's had a shit World Cup, surely no top club wants him and wouldn't be playing in CL next season? this is the time when he usually uses United as an emotional support club so chances are he'd like to stay for another emotional support from the fans.
Had a beef with a team mate? don't feel like you're respected? boo-hoo United always loves you.
Real Madrid annoys you? boo-hoo back to United you go.
Juventus wants to get rid of you? boo-hoo that's okay there's always United.
Had a shit World Cup? you're past-it? too bad, no more United. You burned the bridge, your loss.
Now that he's had a shit World Cup, surely no top club wants him and wouldn't be playing in CL next season? this is the time when he usually uses United as an emotional support club so chances are he'd like to stay for another emotional support from the fans.
Had a beef with a team mate? don't feel like you're respected? boo-hoo United always loves you.
Real Madrid annoys you? boo-hoo back to United you go.
Juventus wants to get rid of you? boo-hoo that's okay there's always United.
Had a shit World Cup? you're past-it? too bad, no more United. You burned the bridge, your loss.
Think he should retire from top level football after WC. There’s no way he could add anything further to his career/legacy, so it’s only steep downhill from now on and he would get only many criticism the longer he played.
Maybe he should consider starting a new business venture using his brand/fame. Or earning those 500m in Saudi Arabia over next 2.5 years could be sweet. Or maybe he could also consider promoting his brand in US.
Maybe he should consider starting a new business venture using his brand/fame. Or earning those 500m in Saudi Arabia over next 2.5 years could be sweet. Or maybe he could also consider promoting his brand in US.
I mean there's vast levels in the racing game. That 31.17 my pal did was only 86th in the race! It's the highest standard race in the country. But for the age it's a phenomenal run, definitely close to sub national standard.
I'd never be as silly to suggest well trained peak age footballers couldn't say match or better my 10k times, which are pretty respectable at the lowest level, but 31mins is proper specialist talent.
Football players are still primarily football players because of their football ability, top level or not. Although the likes of Pulis and others who believe 99% in physicality would try and have us think differently!
In terms of Ronaldo's World Cup legacy, of course 0 goals and 0 assists in the knockout stages of the tournament is a big weakness. I agree that the fact that neither Ronaldo nor Messi had scored in the knockout stages of the tournament was brought up a lot in 2018, so it's not a sudden stick to beat Ronaldo with. But the only 1 of the 5 World Cups he played in that I thought Portugal had a realistic chance of winning, was this current one. After all they've been up against fellow Western European teams in-particular with significantly larger populations, richer federations with far more money invested in the sport, noticeably stronger leagues / league pyramids etc.
2006 - I didn't bet on football matches then (I wasn't old enough to), but I made France the favourites to win their SF especially after beating Brazil in the previous round (plus France had a stronger team on paper). I didn't think they were good enough to beat France and then Italy / Germany back to back to win the tournament (they had struggled to create chances against a 10 man England team in the quarter-finals). Getting to the semis in the first place was a success story for them IMO.
2010 - I thought that they no chance of whatsoever of winning the tournament, and I wouldn't have been surprised at all had the Ivory Coast beaten them and qualified for the knockout stages instead.
2014 - Again I thought that they had no chance of whatsoever of going all the way, and I wasn't surprised that the USA (who they scored a last gasp equaliser against) made it out of the group instead of them. Plus Ronaldo carried an injury at that tournament.
2018 - Despite going into the tournament as defending Euro champions, I didn't consider them to be among the favourites, and I didn't that lightning would strike for a 2nd time in a row. I wasn't surprised at all that Uruguay beat them in the 2nd round (I predicted it), and IIRC Uruguay went into that match as the slight favourites.
2006 - I didn't bet on football matches then (I wasn't old enough to), but I made France the favourites to win their SF especially after beating Brazil in the previous round (plus France had a stronger team on paper). I didn't think they were good enough to beat France and then Italy / Germany back to back to win the tournament (they had struggled to create chances against a 10 man England team in the quarter-finals). Getting to the semis in the first place was a success story for them IMO.
2010 - I thought that they no chance of whatsoever of winning the tournament, and I wouldn't have been surprised at all had the Ivory Coast beaten them and qualified for the knockout stages instead.
2014 - Again I thought that they had no chance of whatsoever of going all the way, and I wasn't surprised that the USA (who they scored a last gasp equaliser against) made it out of the group instead of them. Plus Ronaldo carried an injury at that tournament.
2018 - Despite going into the tournament as defending Euro champions, I didn't consider them to be among the favourites, and I didn't that lightning would strike for a 2nd time in a row. I wasn't surprised at all that Uruguay beat them in the 2nd round (I predicted it), and IIRC Uruguay went into that match as the slight favourites.
If I was Ronaldo I'd probably take that offer from Saudi Arabia, play there until I'm 40 and retire. Retire from Portugal in 2023 (after reaching that 'number of performances' record) as his decline is too clear to actually go to 2024 EUROS. Cristiano played now in 5 World Cups and 5 European championships, that's impressive and enough, no need to keep playing for the sake of it.
How many offers has he had from Champions league clubs? Didn`t Rio say we stopped him leaving in the summer?
Rio seems to be a graduate from the Piers school of Ronaldo idolisation.
Fair play to him wanting to play at the top level but he should have gone to the US a year ago.
Messi will more than likely be playing for Miami next season and he's almost 3 years younger then Ronaldo.
Messi will more than likely be playing for Miami next season and he's almost 3 years younger then Ronaldo.
I can't believe any United fan would feel any sympathy for him. For his own self serving agenda, he went out and buried our club. Let's say we are interested in a player and have competition from another club. One of our supposed own (and our ex-players who defend him) has just said our manager, owner and facilities are terrible. Do you think he's going to be convinced to come besides repeating past mistakes of offering the biggest wages?
I think it was 0 multiplied by 0 clubs. Now that I come to think of it, yeah actually 0 clubs considered him a worthwhile option, which made the discussion all the more stupid, we wanted us to allow him to leave while he had no CL club willing to pay his wages nor buy him. Complete, deluded lunacy.
Aye so you don't believe that we were keeping him hostage from signing for heavyweights such as the likes of 3rd placed team from the Roshn Saudi League or the 12th placed team in Major League Soccer?
All those European CL clubs who were interested over the summer that he rejected would surely be back for him when they can sign him without hassle on a free this winter no?
Like you say, it's about getting that recovery right. I did a 10k this year and finished it in 57:26. To give some context my best is, I think, 56:30 and that was when I was 25/26. So in the space of ten years I've only lost 56 seconds.
But, fecking hell, two days later I couldn't get out of bed without my wife dragging me out. Even my balls hurt. I probably waited about three weeks before I went for even a ten minute jog. Whereas when I was 25/26 and ran the 10k I remember doing Tough Mudder the Saturday after, and running around on the Sunday taking photos of my then girlfriend's group who were doing the half race.
Tell me about it. Can't even eat a single Toblerone triangle nowadays without my tits getting bigger.
I think recovery is key here. If he was to accept a role as an inpact sub, starting the occasional game, it would be a completely different story and he could probably go on for a few years at reduced pace. You see it with other ageing players as well. Maybe they can't be great twice a week for 90 minutes each but for half the time with lots of pauses for recovery, maybe they can.
I need to follow this guy
I'm response to the last tweet by Zack Lowy: Portugal won Euro 2016 without Ronaldo on the pitch but they hardly blew France away. They defended for their lives and eventually scored a very lucky goal with a speculative shot miles outside the area. Not really indicative of how great they could perform without him at the time. His performances throughout the competition were decisive in getting them to the final, anyway. For a long time, he was the reason for Portugal's ascent.
This has been pretty much directly contradicted by ETH himself.
Ronaldo was clearly free to leave - the decision was his.
Rio was/is full of it - which he's generally been when it comes to Ronaldo related matters.
Ronaldo's own behaviour has made it impossible to regard his exit from top level football (I assume that is what this is) with even a mild form of sentimentality (the sort you'd normally be willing to offer a clearly finished, formerly great athlete limping into the horizon).
ETH only confimed what was already reported this summer. The only new thing that we have had this week is that United were allegedly willing to pay part of his wage?
I've missed this, actually - did ETH say this (too)?
But, yes, you're right - it was indeed reported that the decision was Ronaldo's back then too. His fans didn't want to believe it, though: he was forced to stay, etc.
(But was actually wanted by - what was it? - five or six CL clubs.)
So he is still gonna stick around till he gets kicked out?
No, it was reported by Withwell I think or at least that's how I understood it, clubs rejected the opportunity to sign him while only having to cover 80k.
Ah, right - I did see something about that but I thought it referred to January (as in: clubs rejecting a possible January transfer) not this summer.
I checked and it allegedly was this summer. Now to be fair to Ronaldo if true, it can't really be interpreted that United wanted to keep him, the club wanted rid badly.
I'm more surprised that Roy Keane of all people graduated from that same school. Ronaldo's behavior in last 6 months at United was wrong and that's clear. Keane probably has a soft spot for Ronaldo and lalso left in similar manner as well so that could be another reason for defending him.
I believe there were few offers for him in the summer but that those clubs offered half of wages that United give him (or even less) and he wouldn't agree to it. Now there are probably 0 offers with everything that has happened and his rapid decline this season.
Last edited:
Thats pretty much it, he would have been disgusted with his attitude otherwise.
4 minutes in a 10k is an eternity at club runner pace. The different between a 36 minute 10k time and a 40min 10k time is a whole kilometre!
In my day, I’d have had 99% of footballers on toast over 10-21km. That’s not bragging. 99% of the people I raced had me on toast. And I was an irrelevant international runner, just a competitive club runner.
Yes - and part of his obvious dislike for ETH ("he doesn't respect me") clearly comes from this.
Reading between the lines, ETH (who happily for us isn't an idiot) preferred Ronaldo to leave.
And Ronaldo knew this. That is - he knew that ETH wasn't kissing his arse/was fine with him fecking off to anyone willing to take him.
As it turned out, nobody wanted to take him (nobody Ronaldo fancied at the time) - and so ETH and Ronaldo were stuck with each other.
ETH on his part tried to make the best of that situation.
Ronaldo ended up with the disgraceful Piers interview.
Is it possible that ETH could have been more communicative under these circumstances/made his stance clearer to Ronaldo? Possibly.
Does this matter in the grand scheme? Not really, because the only thing Ronaldo would've wanted from ETH is arse kissing to some degree.
(I can easily believe that the pair of them didn't talk much beyond what was absolutely necessary. They both knew the other man's ultimate stance. It's pretty obvious who came out of it best, though.)
Anyone see Ronaldo's instagram stroy? Dude's going through it
If theres a Venn diagram which Has Piers sucking off Ronaldo because he’s famous and monetisable on one side, and Roy having never ending respect for the best footballer he ever played with… Rio is the point of intersection.
Yeah Keane and Rio are 2 of my favorite United players, so their opinions on this matter has been a massive disappointment to me. I suppose don’t idolise footballers off the pitch as quite a lot of them are a little thick.
Possibly
Possibly
I think Roy vs Neville in terms of Ronaldo commentary is the fact that Roy tried to prolong a career too long and Neville didn’t. Armchair psychologists will have a field day with that.
Also, Roy was a manager and put faith in ageing stars, squeezing the last drop of talent out of them. Neville was never (really) a manager (despite the pair having comparable win ratios) and is kind of clueless in that regard.
Keane supports the player he knew, regardless, like a mate. Neville treats Ronaldo the way Keane would have done as a player.
Fans really love him. He was doing the same self serving agenda under Rangnick and Ole but it was called being a model professional and loving the club. He had to embarrass the manager on national tv for everyone to stop tonguing his asscrack. Even that wasn't enough for some.
That's pretty much what I was thinking when I saw the article.
Yes and no.
Our facilities, stadia, long term planning and recruitment are all diabolical. He had a voice that was valid and should point these things out.
But that soppy tw4t didn’t try and help. He just used those things to suggest it’s why he’s been so shit. Instead of be humble and grow into a wider role inside the club.
He has fallen off at the same pace that Rooney did. Rooney had a 24 month period that saw him go from mature, often unplayable forward, to Everton. Ronaldo did that in far less time.
Rooney went to Everton. Ronaldo tried to suggest that the club was the problem.
I remember Neville talking about the game ( it could have been against Stoke or WBA or something like that) when he knew at half time that it was all over. He said Mike Phelan came to him during the half time and said " you are fecked aren't you". He said he just knew it was all over.
Rio was jumping up and down in the studio for United to give Solksjaer the permanent United job after we beat PSG.
I don't listen to any of these ex-players.
I'd love it if Ronaldo pulled a George Costanza from the episode the revenge.
"George furiously quits his job after being disallowed use of the executive toilet but regrets the decision when he realizes he has no good job prospects. Jerry suggests that George go back to work and pretend he never quit."
Imagine Ronaldo strolling back in like nothing happened. Haha
"George furiously quits his job after being disallowed use of the executive toilet but regrets the decision when he realizes he has no good job prospects. Jerry suggests that George go back to work and pretend he never quit."
Imagine Ronaldo strolling back in like nothing happened. Haha