Snippets continue to come out from Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent interview with British media personality Piers Morgan, and it seems like each statement is even worse than the last. At least when it comes to Cristiano’s portrayal of his relationship with Man United. In one of the extracts from the interview Cristiano literally suggests that Man United should be more like Man City, and maybe they’d win more. Although he’s not wrong, the fact that he had the nerve to say that completely angered Man United fans.
The club felt so disrespected that they are reportedly fining Cristiano one million pounds for his comments! Cristiano is now officially on duty with the Portuguese national team ahead of the World Cup. Has he played his last game as a member of Manchester United?
The Interview Was A Power Move
Was there anything about the entire interview that was not a power move? British celeb interviews are known for being controversial, going back to the days of the war of the Wales’ with Princess Diana, and now King Charles. Yes, that’s exactly the magnitude that we feel this interview has reached! In many of those instances though, it was clear that the interviewer perhaps wanted to get more information out of their interviewee than they were maybe willing to give.
Our sense is that in this Cristiano Ronaldo situation this was not the case. Cristiano willingly sat down for the interview and spilled the beans in order to tell his version of the story. The interview as we are depicting, will likely mark Cristiano’s exit from Man United. At this point though, it seems perfectly clear that Cristiano wants this to be the end of his time at Man United.
Does This Impact Cristiano’s Legacy?
Yes, and no. Cristiano’s competitive nature and his ego have certainly been hurt in the past few months by manager Erik ten Hag’s deliberate willingness to put Ronaldo to shame. We’ve long argued that he’d disrespected the Portuguese superstar on multiple occasions and that the recent Ronaldo outbursts were bound to happen. There’s a whole debate about who is more to blame out of the two, but since it is the manager’s job to be able to handle the players on his squad we feel the blame can fall more on Ten Hag. Ultimately most of the people who were not Ronaldo supporters coming into this drama and criticized his antics before may feel vindicated by his recent behavior. Their opinion of Ronaldo was already set before this incident, though. So we can’t say that this is all hurting his legacy too much!
Should Erik ten Hag Feel Safe?
The good thing for Erik ten Hag is that Ronaldo is going to be off at the World Cup, and he’s probably going to have a chance to sit down with the Glazer’s and share his side of the story with them. It’s pretty clear that management and the ownership group have decided to rejuvenate the team under ten Hag’s leadership, whether that’s right or wrong is debatable, but that seems to be their decision nonetheless.
Another thing that Erik ten Hag has going for him is that Ronaldo is going to be turning 38 real soon. So if the Glazer’s decided that only one of the two had to stay at United he may get the chance to remain at the club. Especially with Ronaldo making it abundantly clear that he wants out. Don’t be surprised if Ronaldo returns from the World Cup, and finds the things that were in his locker out on the street. Saying all this it does seem like ten Hag should feel pretty safe. The problem is he may have spent too much of his credit fighting with Ronaldo, if Cristiano leaves, and he ends the season on a low note he may also be out at the end of the league year!
