Rooney gave his best years to United and yet there is a thread on this very forum that's asks about his legend status. There shouldn't even be a question as he is our all time top scorer. Ronaldo left and gave his prime years to Madrid and was loved more up until a few weeks back with his apparent decision to leave.
IMHO Ronaldo was the more talented player, but due to his nationality, he had less ties to England, and wanted to go to Madrid. Rooney is English born and bread, and grew up knowing that we are the biggest, best club around, so he had less incentive to leave. Ronaldo trained exceptionally hard, and that is why he is still performing at a high level at the age of 37. Rooney didn't look after his body as well, and is nowhere near the standard required. Last year, a large number of fans, even those who believe that Ronaldo is , would not have signed him because a 37 year old is not forward planning, but we did so to avoid him signing for city. Also, we were not a well run club, with Ed Woodward prioritising money over football rationale.
Ten Hag now has a dilemma - he doesn't have the budget, or perhaps even the right target available, to replace Ronaldo in this transfer window, but do you keep a player against his will? As I said before, we should do a 3-way switch, ship Ronaldo off to the one club that care more about shirt sales than us (PSG), let Messi go back home to broke Barca, and we get de Jong, and everyone lives happily ever after.