That said, I still expect that Ronaldo will stay with UTD and that he will do so under the terms of a new, longer, and incredibly-lucrative contract with a massive buy-out clause.

David Gill’s firm stand regarding Ronaldo’s contractual status is about as convincing as Daniel Levy’s complaints about Fergy’s “arrogance”.

Like the man said, “show me the money”.

To my way of thinking, the issue revolves around what this team can accomplish with Ronaldo – as opposed to being without Ronaldo.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that UTD replicate this past season’s success in the next two years – two more EPL titles and two more CL titles. That’s clearly the best case scenario. But in contributing to that amazing success, Ronaldo decides that he has had enough and ponies up the twelve million quid to make himself a free agent. UTD potentially lose a huge transfer pay-day but in exchance they will have had a truly fantastic three years of dominance and won about 125 million in prize money. I’d be happy with that best-case scenario.

Of course, the worst-case scenario would be licking the RentBoyz arses for the next two years, winning nothing, and then losing the Ronaldo transfer money. The legions of ABU would like that but no fan of UTD would be happy with that worst-case scenario.

It all comes down to a roll of the dice and, frankly, I’d rather have the chance for glory (i.e., the best-case scenarios outlined above) rather than cashing in our chips, talking the money, and running away from glory.

In fact, there is almost no “market” for a player like Ronaldo since only a very, very few teams have the money to pony up one hundred million Euros. That being the case, I can see why there is a strong case for the UTD hierarchy to keep hold of him for as long as he is “motivated”.

The only fly-in-the-ointment in this scenario is the crazy European Court ruling that might enable him to buy himself out of “slavery” for the price of his last two years’ wages.

Kingpin – I would hope that after signing a lucrative deal with United a year ago when Madrid was interested (highest paid player at United), won the EPL two years in a row, won the Champions League, and scored 40+ goals in a system tailored to your skill set, my dreams would all be fulfilled no matter what club I was at. I think it was always my dream to play for the best, which is unquestionable United at this moment. No team clicked in the same way United did in Europe and domestically. Yes I can fully understand the lure of wanting to full filling a dream and making a shit-ton of money, however I hope I would have handled it in a different manner and with more class.

Of course Ronaldo has acted like a dickhead – I don’t think that anyone disputes that. But he is under contract to UTD and that makes him OUR DICKHEAD.

So, of course, he’s going to have lost a huge amount of “love” from the faithful but I never believed that that “love” was ever really reciprocated. The kid is not a Mancunian – he’s a mercenary, but that’s what most players today are when it comes down to money and meeeeee. After all, didn’t Ca$hley Hole walk away from his boyhood team for a seven per cent rise in pay to play for the RentBoyz ?

Bearing that in mind, I can see two resolutions to this kerfuffle: first, CR& signs a new, longer mega-deal with UTD/Nike which will essentially enslave him; or, second, he will be flogged when the UTD hierarchy decides that the price and timing is right. Hopefully, he won’t be sold to those arseholes at Madrid ! My guess is that the former resolution is the more likely outcome because he will then have enough money to own his own jet so that he can spend all the time he wants partying in his off-hours in Mardid or Milan.