You dont know much about United and its history, do you?
The comprehensive Ronaldo thread
- Thread starter Red the Bear
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His fans are getting desperate by the day now, claiming history of the club started when Ronaldo came in basically.
Some of them if not all should watch a video or 2 or read a book about United cause they're really not aquinted with United's history.
Some of them if not all should watch a video or 2 or read a book about United cause they're really not aquinted with United's history.
feck me the recency bias in here 
Has only himself to blame though, for finishing his incredible career in such an undignified manner. It didn’t have to, and shouldn’t have been this way; and now people are questioning his entire career and “how good was he really” because of it.
Quite clearly he carried a fecking shambles of a Portuguese team for a few years.
Has only himself to blame though, for finishing his incredible career in such an undignified manner. It didn’t have to, and shouldn’t have been this way; and now people are questioning his entire career and “how good was he really” because of it.
Quite clearly he carried a fecking shambles of a Portuguese team for a few years.
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The bolded is true, but is true for Ferdinand, Vidic, Scholes, Evra, Rooney, Tevez & probably Carrick also.
Those players actually made another Champions League final after Ronaldo & Tevez left but ended with the same result (a loss to Barca) as we did with Ronaldo in the team.
Had it not been for Barcelona being so special, that team with or without Ronaldo was capable of, and would have won another CL.
That’s not downplaying Ronaldo, he was absolutely incredible for United in his first spell and gave us some of the best moments in our history.
If you think Ronaldo made United famous Worldwide you’re absolutely off your tits mind, United has always been one the 3 biggest clubs in the World, if anything it was United & Fergie that made Ronaldo famous Worldwide.
Not to mention bringing down Cantona's influence in making United what it is now to biggie up Ronaldo. When I thought I read and seen it all...
Oh my God. This is the worst take I have seen recently. You really have no idea what Manchester United is don't you?
I wouldn't say he's finishing his career poorly. It really shouldn't be a big deal that a 38 year old player is a bench player, even if he's the goat. The only reason this is a story is because Ronaldo himself has refused to accept his declining status, not because there is some obsession with Ronaldo.
Probably not just Ronaldo, but the people around him, his fans and ex colleagues. For a long time, the idea that maybe the team is better off without him or that he shouldn't start was met with so much derision. I said it last year, that despite his goals, a lot of his performances were poor. That was no slight on him. What is happening to him is purely natural and people should just accept it for what it is.
Probably not just Ronaldo, but the people around him, his fans and ex colleagues. For a long time, the idea that maybe the team is better off without him or that he shouldn't start was met with so much derision. I said it last year, that despite his goals, a lot of his performances were poor. That was no slight on him. What is happening to him is purely natural and people should just accept it for what it is.
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I don't think so. Celebrity culture has always existed whether it be pop stars or footballers. But Manchester United are an enormous football club and we're so before our 2006 onwards success even if Japan somehow became isolated from that.
Best player is markedly different from "carried" though. There's a very valid school of thought that if Ronaldo played, Portugal wouldn't have won France in that final. I believed even then he was hampering them as they had started to go through route Ronaldo.
As an aside, Portugal were always regarded as a big nation that bottled things. This is a team that had Figo, Rui Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, with the likes of Ronaldo, Deco and Quaresma coming through the ranks.
However, this argument is getting tedious - of course Ronaldo has been very effective for Portugal and of course over a decent period of time, he made them a lot better, same with United. He was arguably the best player in the world (at least the 2nd) for a while - but he had exceptionally good players around him too. When Portugal really started getting trophies, he'd already morphed into a finisher i.e. very good players defended, controlled games, and made chances for him.
Not sure why we're getting into long debates comparing him with Rooney, Cantona, etc. Can we just agree that Ronaldo was a huge part of one of our best eras, so was Rooney, so was Eric the King in his time. We can't deny any of that, and Ronaldo had pretty memorable moments. Delving into this tired debate of who had the most memorable events is subjective and not really that important.
Spoiler alert: no one will yield and hot takes like "no one knew United before Ronaldo" will emerge
No wonder you’re such a figure of fun on here mate
Without VDS we wouldn't win the final either. Or JT slipping.
This is really scraping the barrel.
It's a team game.
Don't you dare question Ronaldo's hearing ability. He can hear sounds Mbappe can't even envisage
These bloody bootlicker fanboys. I've seen it all now. 
United in 2008 being made out to be Stoke if it wasn't for Ronaldo. We had an incredible defensive unit, with a really good midfield of Scholes, Carrick and Hargreaves and we had fecking Rooney and Tevez up front. The revisionism and abject lies around everything CR7 does, at the expense of the contribution of his teammates is nauseating. The bloke has consistently played in incredible teams, full of world class players, and it is portrayed that he is the only great player, and his teams would be relegated without him. There is no doubting he was a great player, but he was a great player, surrounded by great players.
His own fanbase feeding into this nonsense that he has all of these trophies because he is some kind of Roy of the Rovers hero who drags terrible teams to glory. We have seen it throughout with all the talk about Messi having Xavi and Iniesta etc while implying poor Ronaldo had to make do during that time with such bums as Rio, Vidic, Scholes, Rooney, Tevez etc then Benzema, Bale, Modric, Kroos, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo etc. His team mates sacrificed so much for him throughout his career with Rooneys goalscoring rapidly increasing after he left, and Benzema winning the Balon D'Or after. Both United and Real made the CL final after he left too. Interesting how they did that without Ronaldo "carrying" them.
This fallacy is no more evident than those saying he "carried Portugal" to Euro 2016, an accolade that was lauded for a few years as conclusive proof he was the GOAT. Laughable. If you ignore the badge on their jersey, they were arguably as dull a team to win the Euros as Greece in 2004. Built entirely off being sound defensively. Their road to the final had 5 draws
Iceland 1-1 (Nani)
Austria 0-0
Hungary 3-3 (Nani, Ronaldo 2)
Croatia 0-0 > 1-0 AET (Quaresma)
Poland 1-1 (pens) (Renato Sanches)
Wales 2-0 (Ronaldo, Nani)
His team had one of the easiest, and least winningest, runs to a major final you will ever see, and he still managed a mighty 3 goals in 2 games in this heroic carrying of the minnows of Portugal. And then they won the final without him And of course, not only do his teammates get reduced to being compared to Lee Cattermole without him, we then had his fanboys acting like he managed the team because he stood on the touchline in front of his manager trying to act like he was making tactical decisions so that the cameras would be on him. Just like when he didn't celebrate with his teammates after the Anelka penalty in Moscow, or whipping his short off in 2014 after his penalty to score the stat padder 4th goal after Ramos, Bale and Marcelo had done all the work - he tried to make it about him. In a team game. Where his team did an awful lot more than his idiot minions would ever admit. And now we have the situation where Portugal are miles better without him and have a legitimate chance of a WC with another blessed draw to a SF, and his reaction to being part of yet another top team, is to sulk off at FT because it isn't all about him. Utterly pathetic narcissist. But no doubt they'll be on to me now pointing out that he is so rich and handsome and has so many followers 
For me, the greatest indicator of someone who doesn't understand the sport at all is when they make out that this is an individual sport.
United in 2008 being made out to be Stoke if it wasn't for Ronaldo. We had an incredible defensive unit, with a really good midfield of Scholes, Carrick and Hargreaves and we had fecking Rooney and Tevez up front. The revisionism and abject lies around everything CR7 does, at the expense of the contribution of his teammates is nauseating. The bloke has consistently played in incredible teams, full of world class players, and it is portrayed that he is the only great player, and his teams would be relegated without him. There is no doubting he was a great player, but he was a great player, surrounded by great players.
His own fanbase feeding into this nonsense that he has all of these trophies because he is some kind of Roy of the Rovers hero who drags terrible teams to glory. We have seen it throughout with all the talk about Messi having Xavi and Iniesta etc while implying poor Ronaldo had to make do during that time with such bums as Rio, Vidic, Scholes, Rooney, Tevez etc then Benzema, Bale, Modric, Kroos, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo etc. His team mates sacrificed so much for him throughout his career with Rooneys goalscoring rapidly increasing after he left, and Benzema winning the Balon D'Or after. Both United and Real made the CL final after he left too. Interesting how they did that without Ronaldo "carrying" them.
This fallacy is no more evident than those saying he "carried Portugal" to Euro 2016, an accolade that was lauded for a few years as conclusive proof he was the GOAT. Laughable. If you ignore the badge on their jersey, they were arguably as dull a team to win the Euros as Greece in 2004. Built entirely off being sound defensively. Their road to the final had 5 draws
Iceland 1-1 (Nani)
Austria 0-0
Hungary 3-3 (Nani, Ronaldo 2)
Croatia 0-0 > 1-0 AET (Quaresma)
Poland 1-1 (pens) (Renato Sanches)
Wales 2-0 (Ronaldo, Nani)
His team had one of the easiest, and least winningest, runs to a major final you will ever see, and he still managed a mighty 3 goals in 2 games in this heroic carrying of the minnows of Portugal. And then they won the final without him
And of course, not only do his teammates get reduced to being compared to Lee Cattermole without him, we then had his fanboys acting like he managed the team because he stood on the touchline in front of his manager trying to act like he was making tactical decisions so that the cameras would be on him. Just like when he didn't celebrate with his teammates after the Anelka penalty in Moscow, or whipping his short off in 2014 after his penalty to score the stat padder 4th goal after Ramos, Bale and Marcelo had done all the work - he tried to make it about him. In a team game. Where his team did an awful lot more than his idiot minions would ever admit. And now we have the situation where Portugal are miles better without him and have a legitimate chance of a WC with another blessed draw to a SF, and his reaction to being part of yet another top team, is to sulk off at FT because it isn't all about him. Utterly pathetic narcissist. But no doubt they'll be on to me now pointing out that he is so rich and handsome and has so many followers For me, the greatest indicator of someone who doesn't understand the sport at all is when they make out that this is an individual sport.Yeah it was the busby babes that made Man Utd famous in the first place.
Alright there Joel with your 100 posts, Sportings a good lad, he’s been struggling as much with the end of Ronaldo’s career almost as much as the man himself mind, but he’s right here in that many people are attempting to rewrite history now.
I don't think many are saying that he was not a top player. I certainly think he was at some time the best player in his era certainly. Some years he was better than Messi while other years Messi was. I also don't think his best years was at United. His best years was at Real Madrid. That's probably why majority of United fans (not Ronaldo fans) think there were better players who played for United. I certainly feel that Best was the best player to play for United. I also feel that Rooney, Eric, Robbo played better for United. It doesn't mean they were the better players individually.
This season he scored 2 non penalty goals for us in 55 shots and an npxG of 6. He's underperformed his xG in 5 of his last 6 seasons.
I'll admit he still has some great finishes in him, but his finishing in general has been far from great the last few years.
And then there's the shots he can't get away anymore because of his lack of pace and tempo...
Anyway, Portugal much better without him, just like us.
Good luck with your sportswashing project in Suadi Arabia and counting your dough the next few years, Cristiano.
This is blatantly untrue. I lived in Japan from 2000 - 2004 and United were and still are huge there. Sure there were lots of fans of people like Zidane etc in addition but United were massive in Japan and still are.
You're quite correct. And sure whilst Beckham mania transcended football with his celebrity status it's a nonsense to say that he was only known as a celeb and not a footballer. That's just as absurd as saying CR7 is only a celeb because he's the biggest star on Instagram. So much rewriting of facts going on to fit people own personal narratives.
Heard of David Beckham?
I have an issue with people playing down his career. For all their talent, the chances Haaland or Mbappe will reach Ronaldo's achievements nevermind surpass him as a player are slim.
Even he became famous cause he played for Man Utd.
It's like saying that it's One Direction that made British music famous world wide.
What the absolute feck?? Are you a teenager? This can be the only explanation for such a gormless post.
Our previous no. 7 before Ronaldo, a certain David Beckham was eons more popular than Ronaldo had been during his first stint with Utd. If you actually wanted to pin Utd's popularity to one guy ( which you can't do btw, Utd as a brand has been huge globally since the mid 90s at least) it would be to Beckham way more than Ronaldo.
This place must be populated with kids if they don't realise how big Becks was in the late 90s-2000s.
You can see it in his face how bitter he is that teams are playing better without him. An expected fall from grace from someone who was always a grade 1 cnut. From diving to stealing goals from teammates and ratting on them, Ronaldo had it all basically.
It's a little bit more than that. His crazy fan base were dragged in because of his looks & personal life exposure. They were people who barely knew or cared anything about football. This started the trend of marketing merchandise to a whole new segment of people previously not targeted. Ronaldo's fanbase later followed in similar lines, shifting from Beckham to Ronaldo. You should have seen the Beckham circus around 2002 Japan-Korea.
I can safely say Ronaldo did not "start" this, although he contributed significantly to it. Beckham unlike Ronaldo loved (loves) United & was always respectful.
To me that's not even it, the conversation was about who gave more and who gave more memorable moments. To me it's clearly not Ronaldo for two reasons, first because United is club that has all time greats as some of their long standing players, these players by definition gave more to United than someone that has given us 3 great years. The other thing and it's probably going to interpreted as an agenda or something similar but the 2007-2009 version of Ronaldo is in opinion not exciting and I don't actually many memorable moments, he was already very robotic and cynical in the way he played. Rooney's or Nani's best moments were in my opinion more exciting, they were lesser players, less consistent but more memorable.
I have a similar opinion when it comes to Mbappé, while I can see that these players are great I don't really find them mesmerizing, let alone the most mesmerizing bar none.
What an absolute crock of shit.
First off, where are you from to talk for all of Asia?
I travelled for 3 years in South East Asia & India. So China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indo in my early twenties and United were by far the biggest team in the region, Beckham clearly had much to do with that but mainly it was due to being by far the most dominant team in the most popular league.
Madrid weren’t even slightly popular then so I have to know this magical place where La Liga was so popular or a team that had been shite since the 80’s.
It would be fair enough for some to have Cryuff or Di Stefano above him. Not that is necessarily my own opinion. When someone compliled a poll of who the best player of all time was as answered by the greatest players and managers still alive someone like Di Stefano ranked way higher than Ronnie, but perhaps thats also because they were young while watching Di Stefano and thus made a great lasting impression. Cryuff in his peak was excellent as well. Also scored goals, fantastic dribbler, incredible football iq and could completely run a game. Ronaldo 's scoring consistency though is whats really special not that i see as some Inzaghi or something. Im aware of his overall attributes.
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There’s 4 people on Mt Rushmore and he makes it into the vast majority of people’s top 4.
You made a research?
Di Stefano played his last game almost 60 years ago.
Safe to say, anyone under the age of 80 doesn’t really have a clue there.
Cryuff gets better with every year of his retirement, has now become an extremely popular hipster choice. In reality he’s on a level with the likes of Michael Laudrup, an absolutely incredible and influential footballer, but absolutely not in the list of the top 5 best players ever.
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Anyone suggesting Ronaldo has been carrying his teams which were surrounded by world class players need to give their heads a wobble. The man has played in teams full of world class players and said teams still managed success with him gone. United continued to reach the CL final and winning the PL while Real Madrid carried on winning the CL without him. This notion that Ronaldo carried these teams and they would have been helpless without him is utterly nonsensical. He was the best player on world class teams, not the only great player surrounded by bums to carry them to anything. He was one among many other world class players.
Ronaldo fanboys have to take a break. The delusion has reached insane height.
Ronaldo fanboys have to take a break. The delusion has reached insane height.
Well summarised, does have a touch of Novak about him.
This.
Although having said that, we might have beat barcelona one more time if we still had Ronaldo around.
Hypothetical of course.
His ego and drive is what took him to the top.
But it is also what will tarnish his legacy as he is now clearly on the downturn.
He can't accept that he is no longer the same player as before. He can't accept that there are now players better than him, especially on that portugese team. He can't accept that the team as a whole performs better without him.
But it is also what will tarnish his legacy as he is now clearly on the downturn.
He can't accept that he is no longer the same player as before. He can't accept that there are now players better than him, especially on that portugese team. He can't accept that the team as a whole performs better without him.
Erm before Messi and Ronaldo it was always pele, Maradona, Cruyff as the best of all time in general. And Cryuff was better than Laudrup(and im his biggest fan). He scored more goals than him, had more tenacity and a better career was far more influential and one of the greatest leaders on the pitch ever.
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