As if to demonstrate his point about mentality Rooney chimes in a few hours later with Ronnie being wrong that Man Utd should aim for top 3, and should always aim for top 1.
Both players saying those things is completely worthless. It doesn't show an "elite mentality". Everybody knows that United should be aiming to win the league, but it's deluded to say that the league can be won this season. The absolute best we will get is 4th. To say that we should be aiming for that, in the current position we're in, doesn't mean that you have a weak mentality. Nobody is saying it's a good result to finish 4th. It's not good. It's the absolute bare minimum requirement.
Maybe this is what it takes for the owners to start selling players and start buying again? He is the only player in the squad who has the position, history, and influence to not have his words simply dismissed as whining.
The owners have been buying players. United are the highest spenders in world football over the past 10 years. We have have little to nothing to show for it. The players that have been bought have mostly not been good enough. I get the Glazer hate, due to them siphoning money out of the club, but they can't be accused of refusing to sign players. They gave Ole £400m and he won nothing. We now have most people saying that the signings he made are not good enough, and need to be replaced.
As for Greenwood - maybe he needs this? Greenwood is extraordinarily talented, but maybe he - a 20 year old - needs to have the right people around him? We don't know who Ronnie wants gone, but it is entirely possible that Greenwood's development into a world class player is hindered by influential members of the squad being a bad influence. Ronnie specifically said "I am not talking about the youngsters in the squad, but this generation" , before that he talked about the atmosphere he grew up in, something he clearly believes senior players are responsible for. He even mentions that some players are strongly impacted by media coverage and talks about developing inner self confidence. It's all very much geared towards providing young players with an atmosphere to succeed.
I have no idea what Greenwood needs. I don't know the guy. I don't know who he has around him. Neither do any of us here. Maybe he does need it, but I will always be sceptical of criticising teammates or any of the coaches to the media. I was against it when Mourinho used to do it, and I'm not going to pretend that I like it because Ronaldo has done it now. For me, this is something you do behind closed doors. The club doesn't need more media drama and reasons for fans to abuse the players. I don't think abusing the players does anything positive.
Ronaldo can say he's not talking about his teammates, but I think you can clearly tell that is a lie. He has looked a frustrated figure when Greenwood hasn't passed to him when he probably should have on multiple occasions. We've had stories come out saying that Ronaldo doesn't like playing with him, due to Greenwood not passing to him. Trying to then say he's not talking about his own teammates is pretty laughable. Ronaldo would have had the exact same talk with United players when he first arrived at 18. He didn't pass, and that clearly irritated RvN. I'm sure he's had the exact same talks with Greenwood.
I didn't have a problem with the majority of the interview. A lot of what he said was fair and should be said. I only have issues when you clearly call out teammates to the media. I highly doubt anything good comes from that. If I'm wrong, I will gladly admit to being wrong. If our players take it in their stride, and start to get their shit together, I will be thrilled. They've already been getting a tonne of abuse and negative media coverage, so I highly doubt this will help anything.