The Ghost Of Cristiano Ronaldo Will Haunt Manchester United’s Season

Never one to back away from an argument, Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes felt it necessary to correct a story that emerged in the wake of the club’s win over Manchester City.

The popular Italian newspaper Gazzetta Dello Sport had a post on Instagram that quoted the Portuguese midfielder’s post-game and suggested he’d been critical of former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.

It said the comment “sometimes someone would have thought only of themselves. Now we work for each other” was a direct dig at CR7.

“Next time call someone who understands English well and then does the translation well!” Fernandes responded, “In the interview, I said that we changed from the match with Liverpool [in August], maybe if I’m not mistaken I think Cristiano was still in Manchester, no? Do your job well and not just what comes into your head.”

Regardless of Fernandes’ protestations, reading the quote in its original English form it’s hard not to think of Ronaldo.

“[We] used to be individuals, now we are a team,” he told broadcasters, “you can see a proper team that works for each other.”

Victory over City couldn’t have been more of a contrast from United’s previous meeting this season. Not that Ronaldo had much of a hand in that, but his role in the 6-3 demolition by the blue side of Manchester was limited to grimacing as the camera panned to the bench.

Crises of confidence aren’t CR7’s thing, but you have to wonder how he felt watching the derby or indeed any of the other fixtures since he left.

The Red Devils have won every single post-Ronaldo game, despite there being no replacement or noticeable other factors.

It’s not just that the team has won, it has been the manner there is more cohesion and a greater sense of belief.

Players like Bruno Fernandez and Marcus Rashford, whose form deteriorated alongside CR7, are regaining former heights and look liberated without their more-famous teammate.

The narrative that one of the game’s greatest talents was holding back the Red Devils is hard to resist.

But the recent effectiveness of ten Hag’s team is far more likely to be related to the 6 months he’s had to communicate his philosophy and learn the challenges at the club for himself.

In the Dutch coach’s first comments post-Ronaldo it was clear while the Portuguese star’s unhappiness had been a distraction, he was keen to leave it behind.

“It is the past. We are looking to the future. Move on,” he said when asked what his feelings on the “Ronaldo situation” were.

It was an almost identical answer to the question about Ronaldo’s accusation that he’d been “betrayed”

“I want to go to the future. We want a new future for Manchester United and he didn’t want to be part of it. We move on,” he said.

ten Hag did make one revealing comment about Ronaldo, he admitted he “did everything to bring him into the team because [he] value[d] his quality.”

The inference it was hard not to make, as was the case with the Fernandes comment, was that it could have been so different had CR7’s attitude been too. If this is true it is sad.

Ronaldo’s supreme confidence has always been seen as an asset and there is good reason for that, to outperform the best players in the world you have to believe you can.

But far too often, since his return to Old Trafford, his confidence in his ability has seen him storm off the substitutes bench or clash with the manager rather than rattle in a goal.

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona put this stubbornness down to a refusal to accept the aging process.

“I think Ronaldo didn’t realize – and he still doesn’t realize – he’s not 25 years old,” the Frenchman said, “he should have realized that instead of being not happy to play some games, say, ‘okay, I am not 25 years old, I cannot play every game, but I will help the young players and accept that situation and that’s my situation’.

“I cannot run as fast as when I was 30 years old, I have to accept it. I have to accept I will die someday. It’s difficult to accept it but we have to. And the end of a career is like dying. It’s a little death. You have to start another thing. And before you die, you’re getting old and you have to accept you are getting old. You cannot do the things you do.”

Messi’s special treatment

It must be particularly painful for Ronaldo to watch how his longtime rival for the title of the greatest player in the world, Lionel Messi, has been treated.

Equally, if not more, limited by age he has been placed at the center of teams despite his declining physical attributes.

At the World Cup Argentina built its entire team around the little playmaker, his teammates running extra so their talisman wouldn’t have to.

Even the coach, Lionel Scaloni, showed deference “I wouldn’t substitute Messi unless he tells me to,” he said

Meanwhile, Ronaldo was riding the bench with Portugal, unable to convince his manager to offer more than a cameo in the dying embers of the knock-out phase games.

Whether ten Hag or Portugal could have similarly accommodated CR7 will remain one of the great hypothetical questions.

Unsurprisingly, given he was the man whose interview brought the curtain down on Ronaldo’s United career, British journalist Piers Morgan believes more could have been done.

“They managed to lever out the greatest footballer in history,” he said

“[But] I would ask is will any of this brilliant new United team score as many goals for United this season as Ronaldo did for them last season?

“When [Arsenal] win the league and when United do not win the league because they got rid of the GOAT, I expect Erik ten Hag to get on bended knee beg me for forgiveness and apologize to Cristiano Ronaldo for the shocking disrespect that he showed him.”