This story is not overly surprising! Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has reportedly asked the team’s owners to get rid of Cristiano Ronaldo to make sure that he doesn’t come back to the club after the World Cup. The Piers Morgan interview did not sit well with ten Hag, and potentially wasn’t all too well received by the Glazer family either. Cristiano was not afraid to tell his side of the story. Ultimately, as we mentioned in previous coverage of the story it seems like the interview had the effect that Ronaldo was looking for. He wants out of Manchester United just as much as ten Hag wants him to leave! The question is who’s got more to lose in the split?
What Manchester United Is Losing By Allowing Ronaldo To Walk
Simply put Manchester United is losing the team’s most marketable asset. He may not be the most valuable player in the transfer market anymore, but there’s no question that he and Lionel Messi changed how players’ personal value to a brand is calculated these days. For generations soccer was a sport in which the teams are what people watched with certainly stars sprinkled in as add ons. However, Ronaldo is one of the few players perhaps in the history of the game that has added an immense amount of monetary value to the brand of the team’s that he’s been on.
Now, it’s no secret that keeping him on the team in the limited role that Erik ten Hag has given him this season so far is probably determinantal to the team’s brand and his own brand. As we’ve said since our first article covering the ten Hag-Ronaldo relationship, the team just can’t go on with both of them at the club. It’s either Ronaldo’s team or Ten Hag’s team. Even though the Manchester United brand is going to lose value without Ronaldo on the squad it may be time to just rip the band-aid on and move forward!
Where Does Cristiano Go From Here?
This is a tough question to answer. There’s no question that many teams would like to add Cristiano Ronaldo to their roster, because of what we just talked about. Having him on the squad adds value to the brand. The problem for Ronaldo is that there are now questions about how much he can actually contribute on the field. So a contending team may be reluctant to bring him aboard, and deal with the circus that he comes with if they don’t see the value of him on the weekends.
A return to his boyhood club could be an option in this situation particularly if Man United is willing to just give him away to get him away from ten Hag. Fans at Real Madrid had started a petition to get him back on the team. Ronaldo himself mentioned that he had made a mistake by leaving the club.
Tensions Amongst The Portuguese National Team Before The World Cup
While some Portugal players mentioned that the controversy between Ronaldo and Manchester United would not be affecting the team ahead of the World Cup because, “We know that the story is always about him”, there was a moment between Ronaldo and Man United teammate Bruno Fernandes at the Portugal camp that raised some eyebrows. The two shared a frosty handshake while meeting up in the locker room. Obviously, the first thing that came to people’s minds was that Fernandes was not happy about Ronaldo’s behavior at Man United. Today Fernandes had to address the situation and reassure Portuguese fans that all was well between the two. However, this is likely not the last we see of this storyline in Qatar!
