Not just salary he represents a short term fix and can be detrimental to players coming through. Juventus bought him at 32 when he was still at his peak of his powers to win the CL. It didn’t happen CR7 just fell out with the coaches for 4 years, yes he’s still going to score 20/30 goals per season but at what cost. I say we let him go on loan for 1 year but the loan team pays his wages and a loan fee of £5m, we then extend his contract on the understanding, we sell him next year for £25M to the Saudi Club who have expressed an interest.
That way we win and he thinks he wins but we also make him be available for the first 3 or 4 games in PL before the window closes from the bench.
I wasn't saying we shouldn't sell or loan if we get a offer. As long as we get one more attacker, we should do that. However, at this moment , it looks tough to get a replacement. We already lost Greenwood and if we lose Ronaldo too , goals would be very hard to come.
Everyone knows what Ronaldo brings to the team and what he takes out. I am sure ETH also thought in detail about this and probably came to conclusion that we need to keep him to get the goals.
If you have asked me end of last season whether Ronaldo would prefer to stay this season at Utd, I would have said probably not because he values himself very high to play in Europa. But did Club management thought about this and have a contigency plan? Based on their past actions, probably not.