If Cristiano Ronaldo leaves in the summer, what will it say about the future of Manchester United?

[fastwalker]

Since he arrived last summer, Cristiano Ronaldo has been the single most talked about personality at the club. In the early weeks of the season, we talked about him as he banged in the goals. During the group stages of the Champions League we talked about him because his goals kept us in the tournament. Today with allegations of tensions with Harry Maguire over the leadership in the dressing room and the United captaincy, we are talking about him again. Ronaldo himself has said that he has come to United to be successful and that finishing top three is a minimum for him.

Ronaldo represents so much more than a returning hero. This man is a multiple Champions League and Ballon D'or winner, a serial winner of trophies in England, Spain and Italy. He embodies success and the highest professional standards. Attitudinally, we have nothing like Cristiano Ronaldo in our dressing room. He is the culture of sustainable and relentless success, that is completely alien to the 2022 Manchester United vintage.

So, if we accept these things to be true, what would his departure mean for us? Would it represent a victory for those in the dressing room who allegedly resent his presence? Would it mean tacit acceptance of the comparative mediocrity that United have become? Would it mean that he has simply given up on us?

Much as I know that CR7 cannot go on forever, I also think that the symbolism of his departure would speak volumes about the direction of this club. What do others think?

 

[2 man midfield]

It won’t have ronaldo in it

 

[Jericho]

I think it says more about Ronaldo tbh, and not even in a bad way. He's 37, he doesn't have time to waste on a transitional period.

 

[Stobzilla]

Nothing much, just probably that a new manager doesn't feel like he can get the best out of him.

For what it is worth I think he would do well out of a coach like ETH who rotated two different types of forwards in seasons before this one and got a tune out of Klaas Jan Huntelaar in his older age. Someone like Ronaldo I couldn't see him having a problem with.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Signing Ronaldo at the age of 36 summed up where United are too, to be fair.

 

[shaky]

It will say everything. Or nothing. Probably the latter.

 

[Lay]

Not a lot. I don’t think it’s worked out for either party.

What I hope it does is stop the signing of past it forwards.

 

[BluesJr]

It would be beneficial to the team. Club image would take a hit in the short term but IF, and it’s a big if we get the new manager and recruitment right we’ll be a much better team without him.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

Signing Ronaldo at the age of 36 summed up where United are too, to be fair.

And keeping him after his performance this year would be an even bigger indictment of the club.

 

[Xaviboy]

Ronaldo will be planning his exit once we get knocked out of champions league.

 

[youmeletsfly]

Nothing. We signed one player and we-ll replace him, nothing special about it.

 

[Tom Cato]

Ronaldos wife is having twins this year.

Ronaldos son just signed for the Academy

Unless the club forces him out, he is staying until he retires

 

[captaincantona]

Since he arrived last summer, Cristiano Ronaldo has been the single most talked about personality at the club. In the early weeks of the season, we talked about him as he banged in the goals. During the group stages of the Champions League we talked about him because his goals kept us in the tournament. Today with allegations of tensions with Harry Maguire over the leadership in the dressing room and the United captaincy, we are talking about him again. Ronaldo himself has said that he has come to United to be successful and that finishing top three is a minimum for him.

Ronaldo represents so much more than a returning hero. This man is a multiple Champions League and Ballon D'or winner, a serial winner of trophies in England, Spain and Italy. He embodies success and the highest professional standards. Attitudinally, we have nothing like Cristiano Ronaldo in our dressing room. He is the culture of sustainable and relentless success, that is completely alien to the 2022 Manchester United vintage.

So, if we accept these things to be true, what would his departure mean for us? Would it represent a victory for those in the dressing room who allegedly resent his presence? Would it mean tacit acceptance of the comparative mediocrity that United have become? Would it mean that he has simply given up on us?

Much as I know that CR7 cannot go on forever, I also think that the symbolism of his departure would speak volumes about the direction of this club. What do others think?

Quite the over reaction.

He is an old limited, but formerly great, player. His attitude means nothing if it is not rubbing off on his peers. He has not brought any sense of professionalism to the team that was missing before hand and is now Somehow noticeable. His past glories which are epic have no bearing on who he is now or what he is capable of.

Him staying should be contingent on his performances being good enough. They haven’t been and so he should be a bit part player at most if he cannot take it up a few levels. We need a more coherent front line and with the loss of GW, Cavani and Martial presumably, we will need more than one real top class and consistent attacker.

Him leaving is only a negative in terms of available capable squad players. If we buy two good established attackers (Raphina, Richarlson, Haaland, Nunez,) maybe depending on the new gaffer some talent like Anthony...then I wouldn’t care less if he left. I don’t get the elevation of this guy. His achievements speak for themselves and are not in question. Let’s not raise his status to something that it isn’t. He has done nothing to drag this bunch of messers up a level so far.

 

[2 man midfield]

Ronaldos wife is having twins this year.

Ronaldos son just signed for the Academy

Unless the club forces him out, he is staying until he retires

They have hospitals all over the world.

He can easily move his son.

I think he’ll be gone come June.

 

[gerdm07]

Brighter

 

[FrankDrebin]

Ronaldos wife is having twins this year.

Ronaldos son just signed for the Academy

Unless the club forces him out, he is staying until he retires

Alongside Kai Rooney and Matic Jr.

 

[Red_toad]

Future = no Ronaldo and Europa league. Or we’ve got a manager who wants a striker who isn’t Ronaldo and is being backed by the club.

 

[Sandikan]

Ronaldo has probably been the only bright point this year for me.
Almost everything else has been a disaster. The absolute batterings at home, the miserable end of the Ole regime. Maguire especially, but also Shaw and Wan Bissaka showing criminally poor form.
Greenwood. Rashford being well off his game.
Sancho taking 8 months to even vaguely settle in.
Cavani seemingly not wanting to be here and being ridiculously generously treated in having a couple of weeks off for every occasional performance.

If Ronaldo did go and we bought a class striker, I'd deal with it, but I'd probably keep him around next year and hope to get the rest of the team performing better.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

It would mostly just be another stick for the media to beat us with but him leaving wouldn’t matter, it was always a strange move - for both parties.

 

[TheReligion]

Ronaldos wife is having twins this year.

Ronaldos son just signed for the Academy

Unless the club forces him out, he is staying until he retires

I think so

 

[The Cat]

Won't hurt anywhere near as much as the first time he left.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Since he arrived last summer, Cristiano Ronaldo has been the single most talked about personality at the club. In the early weeks of the season, we talked about him as he banged in the goals. During the group stages of the Champions League we talked about him because his goals kept us in the tournament. Today with allegations of tensions with Harry Maguire over the leadership in the dressing room and the United captaincy, we are talking about him again. Ronaldo himself has said that he has come to United to be successful and that finishing top three is a minimum for him.

Ronaldo represents so much more than a returning hero. This man is a multiple Champions League and Ballon D'or winner, a serial winner of trophies in England, Spain and Italy. He embodies success and the highest professional standards. Attitudinally, we have nothing like Cristiano Ronaldo in our dressing room. He is the culture of sustainable and relentless success, that is completely alien to the 2022 Manchester United vintage.

So, if we accept these things to be true, what would his departure mean for us? Would it represent a victory for those in the dressing room who allegedly resent his presence? Would it mean tacit acceptance of the comparative mediocrity that United have become? Would it mean that he has simply given up on us?

Much as I know that CR7 cannot go on forever, I also think that the symbolism of his departure would speak volumes about the direction of this club. What do others think?

That we're moving on from relying on a 37 year old?

It will say nothing about us. Our decisions on who we hire as manager and the signings we make to bolster the squad will say much more. People need to stop obsessing with stars.

 

[lex talionis]

It would really depend on the circumstances surrounding the departure. If we’ve strengthened the squad going into next season the club will be praised for moving forward.

 

[Max_United]

Since he arrived last summer, Cristiano Ronaldo has been the single most talked about personality at the club. In the early weeks of the season, we talked about him as he banged in the goals. During the group stages of the Champions League we talked about him because his goals kept us in the tournament. Today with allegations of tensions with Harry Maguire over the leadership in the dressing room and the United captaincy, we are talking about him again. Ronaldo himself has said that he has come to United to be successful and that finishing top three is a minimum for him.

Ronaldo represents so much more than a returning hero. This man is a multiple Champions League and Ballon D'or winner, a serial winner of trophies in England, Spain and Italy. He embodies success and the highest professional standards. Attitudinally, we have nothing like Cristiano Ronaldo in our dressing room. He is the culture of sustainable and relentless success, that is completely alien to the 2022 Manchester United vintage.

So, if we accept these things to be true, what would his departure mean for us? Would it represent a victory for those in the dressing room who allegedly resent his presence? Would it mean tacit acceptance of the comparative mediocrity that United have become? Would it mean that he has simply given up on us?

Much as I know that CR7 cannot go on forever, I also think that the symbolism of his departure would speak volumes about the direction of this club. What do others think?

He embodies success in the past and our futile and frankly pathetic attempts to recreate past glories by clinging to its symbols as opposed to creating a functioning and meritocratic footballing structure.

As a club we act like we completely misanalysed what made us successful under Fergie and which practices should be retained and which were successful due to being specific to the era/us being lucky to have him and not sustainable without him. We repeat exactly the practices/actions of the successful era that should have been binned (persisting with underperformed manager, not having DoF) but do not engage in the practices that were critical to retain (targeting young up-and-coming and outperforming manager as a start, benching or selling underperforming or sulking players even if they are still world-class etc).

Regarding Ronaldo - for all the past glories he is on decline and a very average player at best at this level. Whatever Fergie says, under him Ronaldo would have definitely been sold now - or even years ago - to make way for young talented attackers - in case he stayed at United instead of pushing for RM move (as Ruud was sold whilst still being class - or Rooney who would have been sold had Fergie not retired).

 

[sullydnl]

The reasoning behind bringing him back at 36 when he didn't particularly fit our team was arguably far more damning than him leaving would be.

And you could frame his departure as a step in correcting those mistakes and actually moving towards a cohesive team. The OP doesn't mention the large potential upside that could come from his departure.

 

[Red For Ever]

If the future of Manchester United revolves around a player who will be 37 next season, United have a problem

Not his fault, sure his heart and desire are as strong and focused as they ever were.
But his body can't keep going at the level we need and the level that I m sure he still wants to achieve.

Part of the history of United forever, but not the future.

 

[Gandalf]

It says a player who is at an age where he can only look ahead one season at a time does not want to wait for an inevitable rebuild to be completed and a team that is rebuilding needs to focus on longer term signings and not 37 year olds with one year left on their contract.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Imagine if Ronaldo is gone in summer, and we did finally land Harry Kane for around 100m as replacement, our once upon a time dream signing to some.

Problem is, he only has 5 PL goals in 21 games this season mind (if he repeat the same here he will get a Maguire treatment), and Haaland is definitely not coming here, so lets not get our hopes high.

 

[peridigm]

That we've stopped living in the past and finally moving on from our sentimental ways.

 

[hobbers]

Ronaldo leaving wouldnt be an issue. The bigger issue is Maguire staying.

 

[Andre Kagawa]

What's Sonya Cross' opinion on all this?

 

[Leftback99]

Personally I'd be far more postive going into next season without 37 year old Ronaldo than him staying and starting the majority of games.

 

[Sassy Colin]

If Cristiano Ronaldo stays in the summer, what will it say about the future of Manchester United?

 

[Giggsy13]

Ronaldo won’t be leaving. I do think in the end we’ll manage a 4th place finish, as the teams behind us equally have flaws and man for man we have better players. Ronaldo stays for 1 possibly 2 more seasons.

 

[El Zoido]

We can call it a mistake to bring him back, but he’s given us some good memories this season. Being at OT for his first game back vs Newcastle is a day I’ll never forget. Some last minute winners, too. Frankly, seeing him back in red has been one of the few uplifting aspects of this season. And he didn’t ruin our season, it would have been tough regardless.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Stay or go it doesn't matter, he's one player. Aged 37 at that.

 

[Random Task]

If Cristiano Ronaldo stays in the summer, what will it say about the future of Manchester United?

That we're a club desperately clinging to a decadent past.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Ronaldo will be gone if he is convinced there is no way we could compete for trophies in near future.

And a list of players would/should be going with him for various reasons - Cavani(free), Greenwood(free), Martial(25m), Pogba(free), Lingard(free), VDB(25m), Matic(free), Mata(free), Maguire(30m)

We would need to spend minimum 300m this summer to buy at least 6 players - 2 midfielders, 1 striker, 1 wing forward, 1 CB, 1 full back, in order to stay competitive for top 4 next season.

Our starting line up for next season:

De Gea
new WB Varane new CB Shaw
new DM new CM
Sancho Bruno new WF
new Striker

Backups: Rashford(CF/WF), Elanga(WF), Diallo(WF), Mejbri(AM), McFred(DM), AWB(WB), Telles(WB), Lindelof(CB), Bailly(CB)
(1 backup for each position)
​

And no, Haaland or Rice or Bellingham would have crashed our budget completely, and Haaland wouldn't want to join us in a million years anyway.
We would need to play around smart with our budget, 50m per player is the max we could do next summer, we need to buy alot of players. A lot!

 

[Random Task]

Goodbye Ronnie, thanks for the many unforgettable memories.

Hello Alfe, welcome to the beginning of something great.

 

[Sassy Colin]

What happens if something which may or may not happen, happens, or doesn't happen?