The timing of Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to effectively hand in a transfer request and begin a very public wooing of potential super-clubs is said to have rocked Manchester United.
It is bad news for new manager Erik ten Hag, casting a shadow over their pre-season training camp before it has even begun. That’s the go-to line, anyway.
In private, despite recently publicly stating that Ronaldo is part of his plans next season, ten Hag must be punching the air. A solution to his most uncomfortable problem having revealed itself like a divine intervention, the clouds parting to offer him the clean slate he needed but lacked the autonomy to deliver.
Because the truth is Ronaldo was a bad signing and a disruptive influence; symbolic of a broken transfer policy and of a club run as a corporate brand.
His desire to leave is just as telling. To so brazenly derail Ten Hag’s summer betrays the egotism that drives Ronaldo and reflects the individualism that has made him an albatross these last few years, first at Juventus and now at Man Utd.
He is a man on a singular mission in a team sport that no longer bends to his will.
Chelsea would be wise to stay away from Ronaldo
Ronaldo's presence, his flouncing, and his celebrity cause unrest in the dressing room; create fear and hesitancy on the pitch; and prevent his team from deploying anything resembling contemporary tactical ideas.
That is the issue Ten Hag faces and the reason he would be delighted to lose the great obelisk that towers over Old Trafford.
One can easily imagine Ronaldo’s reaction to Ten Hag’s long and punishing training sessions and seminars, to his demand that the squad unquestionably buy in to a high-energy, counter-pressing, possession-dominating style evoking the Total Football of the classic Ajax sides.
It requires constant movement, hard work, and self-sacrifice. It requires everything Ronaldo lacks.
It has become a truth universally acknowledged that Ronaldo does not work hard enough to function as a modern nine, and while sometimes the importance of hard-pressing strikers is overstated this is not the case when it comes to Ronaldo – an extreme example.
According to FBRef, his average of 6.54 pressures per 90 over the last 365 days is the lowest number among all forwards in the ‘Big Five’ leagues. The absolute lowest. The 1st percentile.
It is highly unlikely Ten Hag can instigate his complex tactical system with such a static figurehead at the top, but even if he somehow managed to cover the pressing side of things, Ronaldo’s mere presence would undermine the project.
There is no space for the constant complaints, for the Hollywood shooting, or for the insistence he is fed with difficult long balls at every opportunity. It is very hard to ignore such a colossus of the game, but that colossus is issuing demands and offering advice that is entirely inappropriate these days.
A successful 2021/22 season at United?
Whether or not Ronaldo was a success last season, however, is up for debate.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tactical ideas were so thin he scarcely gave any instructions at all, instead expecting his better players to win through sheer force of will, and from that perspective Ronaldo was a decent fit.
His 18 Premier League goals (17.21 xG) is a strong defence against criticism, and yet more often than not – and especially during the Ralf Rangnick months – Ronaldo only added to the sense of a slow, aimless, and individualistic malaise infecting the club.
In fact, it is in keeping with Ronaldo as an artefact from the past that he is judged on goalscoring alone. That is simply not enough anymore, as proved quite simply by the fact that in his last two domestic seasons Ronaldo’s team have finished 4th and 6th. He has won just one trophy, the Coppa Italia, in the last two years, and reached the Champions League quarter-final once in the last four attempts.
It is arrogant of Ronaldo to think he is blameless in all that, to assume he is above United’s current level, or to believe he deserves to play for a team capable of challenging in Europe.
A want-away player is one that no club should want to keep. That is the simple truth that should encourage Man Utd to find Ronaldo a new home and let him leave for nothing, freeing up his extortionate wages to sign a striker better suited to Ten Hag’s vision.
Robert Lewandowski is likely to be available but may not be happy playing outside the Champions League. Paulo Dybala, available for free, is a very attractive option considering his diligent work outside the penalty area as a quick link-up player for the likes of Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford to feed off.
But no matter the timing of the announcement and the relative lack of top-level strikers available on the market, Man Utd are simply better off without Ronaldo.
A fluid front three, spearheaded by Sancho and a new addition – Antony or Serge Gnabry, for example – is definitely a better option because, more than anything else, Ten Hag needs hungry young players willing to buy into his vision and work themselves into the ground for the collective good.
Ronaldo will not give Ten Hag that, which must have given the new United manager some sleepless nights over the last few weeks.
All of a sudden, an elegant solution is on the horizon – if only Man Utd can find a Champions League club foolish enough to ignore all the warning signs and take Ronaldo off their hands.
