My feelings on Cristiano Ronaldo have been there for all to see. Whilst it’s always been obvious he’s a bit of a tosser, he’s always been our tosser. I like United having players other fans hate because it’s enjoyable to see how wound up they get.
To me, he felt less like ours after his behaviour last summer. Whilst I’ve always understood his desire to go to Spain I couldn’t abide by the flirting with Real Madrid that took place after our league and European Cup double. It showed a complete lack of respect for the club that had just enabled him to win the Champions League and the fans that had idolised him. Having being denied the trophy parade through the city to celebrate our achievement, we were then denied even the attention our success deserved, thanks to Ronaldo’s ramblings in the press and refusal to commit to the club. He ruined that summer for us through his self-obsession and greater concern for his own self-promotion than the feelings of the fans who adored him.
Had Ronaldo come back in to the team and worked as hard as he had done the year before, whilst all wouldn’t have been forgiven, it would have made the events of the summer easier to forget. However, instead of playing with “honour for the shirt” as he had promised when agreeing to stay, he stropped and sulked and whinged his way through large chunks of the season.
It is for that reason I am glad he’s going.
Ronaldo is truly one of the most gifted players we’ve ever had at United, who has had arguably a greater impact on the success of the club than players we would happily regard as red legends. To score 42 goals in 47 games is simply out of this World and it really will take some player to match that kind of season. The highest scorer in the Premiership, the highest scorer in the Champions League, as well as scoring our only goal in the Cup final. Phenomenal. There really is no other way to accurately describe it.
Some players join your team to serve a purpose for a period of years, whilst others become a part of the club. We can look at the homegrown players and use them as great examples, but essentially, it’s fairly easy to stay committed to the team you’ve grown up as a part of, particularly when that team is Manchester United! But it’s the players from outside who join us and spend the best years of their career with us and really understand what it’s about. Players like Eric Cantona, Ole Gunnar Solsksjaer and Andy Cole (who still has a season ticket at Old Trafford). With our current team this attitude is seen most brightly in Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra. Ronaldo was never going to be a keeper for us, he was always going to leave, and we shouldn’t have complaints about that.
When he joined the club as an 18-year-old, the talk was still centred on David Beckham. The World revolved around Beckham that summer, he was the talk of the town, and questions were raised as to whether we would go on to be successful without him. For any person who questions what United can achieve when great players retire or leave, there is only one response: we won the Treble two years after Cantona left.
Still, Alan Hansen gave his reaction on Beckham’s high profile exit to Real Madrid with the BBC: There has been a lot of talk that Beckham was sold because of a problem he had with Sir Alex Ferguson. I don’t think that is the case. In my view, his transfer is a financial decision, in keeping with how football works these days. The key is whether Manchester United plc have got the right amount of money for the England captain. And even more important is how they spend their windfall. There is no guarantee they will be able to sign a world-class player to replace Beckham. What is certain, though, is that the person who does fill Beckham’s boots will get time to adapt to life at Old Trafford.
So the cycle continues on. Will we get a world-class player to replace Beckham’s replacement? Who knows. We didn’t replace Ruud van Nistelrooy but still moved from second to Champions in our first season without him. What is certain is the boss knows what he’s doing. He’s no soft touch and he hates Real Madrid, so for him to accept a bid from them means he is doing the best thing for the club. Ferguson doesn’t have the emotional sway the fans do (I personally would have bit Perez’s hand off!) over Ronaldo’s attitude yet the offer was accepted. Whatever your feelings on Ronaldo, you have to trust the manager is right.
We might not win the league next year, we might not have won it even with Ronaldo in the team, but life has to move on. You can’t cling on to a player who doesn’t want to be here. That’s far too desperate and small-time for United. We won the battle with Real Madrid, keeping him for an extra year, winning another title, watching another 26 goals go in, and then still got £80 million out of them for a player who wanted to leave! Never, ever will a football club manage a better bit of business than we have here.
With the deal being agreed so early it means we don’t have to endure the frustration and embarrassment of last summer. We can draw a line under it now, without too many hard feelings, with Ronaldo keeping his gob shut (so far) and allowing the people who needed to do the talking to get on with it. We can spend the summer thinking about who we will buy and not having to wait with apprehension over what Ronaldo was going to say to the press next. It almost feels like a weight lifted.
His exit will also allow the more deserving players, like Wayne Rooney, to step in to the spotlight. Just as Ruud van Nistelrooy’s departure allowed Ronaldo to step up to the plate, hopefully now Sir Alex will see the light, particularly if he’s been watching England’s World Cup qualifiers, and play Wayne in his proper position.
The way he is leaving should allow us to say our goodbyes without anger or regret. Ronaldo was a bloody good player for us for six years and our club’s name is on a few trophies thanks to his input. Whilst I’ll never agree with those who were happy for him to behave as he did last season, I will always be glad he played for us. We’ve had a great few years; from his introduction as a skinny teenger, to the drama of the World Cup, to us winning our trophy back, to us lifting the European Cup again. All the attention he has brought to himself, all the hatred he induced from our rivals, all the flicks, and the goals, and the dives, and stepovers, have been thoroughly entertaining. He’s not only left a mark on our club, but football as a whole in this country, so for all his faults, you can’t help but recognise what a special player he is.
I’d be lying if I said I wanted him to do well in Madrid. Whilst I don’t want him to flop, I would be happy if the best years of his career were in a United shirt, and for Real to look like total knobs after spending all that money and still not being able to buy the success they crave. With Ruud’s rumoured £1.25m transfer to the Premiership on the cards, just three years after he left, the knowledge that it’s downhill after United would be made a complete example of through Ronaldo’s failings with Madrid. I’d love for us to come up against them and beat them, but for Ronnie to get the good response from our fans that he deserves.
I childishly refused to sing “Viva Ronaldo” this season after shouting it until my throat was raw throughout the season before and it still not being enough to make him certain he wanted to stay. Yesterday’s news was a shock, but not because I was surprised, but because it was such a big deal. Ronaldo is such a big player now that this story was big news for everyone. But his heart wasn’t in it this year and as a result, I couldn’t get behind him the way I had the year before, and the way people told me I should have again. The people who defended him until they were blue in the face will probably be able to reflect on his behaviour of the season gone by; the noticeable decline in effort with tracking back, the temper tantrums, the berating of his team-mates, and see how obvious it was that he was ready to leave.
But Ronaldo truly was a great United number 7 and as the years go by, I hope he is remembered more and more fondly by our fans. He is a tosser… but he was our tosser.
Viva Ronaldo!
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good blog scott…
i hope he does complete gash at madrid… imagine the pressure on his shoulders… i hope he fails because of the complete lack of respect he showed to united..
thanks for everything ron, but now i couldnt give a toss if your private plane falls of the radar on your way back from LA
Excellent article Scott. You have it spot on
what a shit life to be professional football player…
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25624524-5001021,00.html
It will be interesting to see what his attitude is like at madrid.
I for one will be trying to watch him play on the telly whenever i can to see if he’s still the same player or if the ‘tantrums ‘ have disapeared
Ive just watched a youtube vid for all his goals in the 0607 and 0708 seasons. Brought a tear to my eye…
However, I’m more excited about who we could replace him with. I wonder who Fergie is looking at, or who he is already talking to…
By the way scott, you spelt Ronaldo’s name wrong in the title. ‘Ronalo’
Wow.The Scott-Ronaldo closure.Great article.As you said,he was our tosser.Lets keep the good and look onwards and upwards.
Excellent article, sums up my feelings perfectly.
Swissdevil: to be honest, I don’t think there’s enough money in the world to make me go out with Paris Hilton. Fortunately, there’s no danger of such “temptation”.
I’d laugh if he caught the clap of her!
I couldn’t agree any more. Ronaldo will be missed a lot but the more I think about it the more I feel it was the best thing for everyone, fans ,the team, the players.He’s got valid reasons to go to Madrid and I think as fans we should be grateful for what he’s done. I’ll be extremely happy if Rooney shows the world his full potential next season and I have a gut feeling he’ll be THE LEGEND!
Mellowed article. But we respect it.
Great article.
Very good article Scott!
it’s alright talking in cliched terms like: “he was our tosser” but I’m sorry, I’m just not comfortable with that. It’s one thing the ABU media trying to stigmatise players like they have done with Eric, Keane, Nevilles and Beckham etc when it wasn’t deserved but we don’t need a prima donna like Ronaldo to give them reason to do so. Apart from his waning form and overall effect on the team, I’m quite happy to take 80m and trust in the great man that is Fergie to do the rest.
apparently madrid are after evra as well as vidic!
Excellent Scott. “He was a tosser, but he was our tosser” Genius line!
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/united-accept-pound80m-offer-from-madrid-for-ronaldo-1769796.html
I agree almost entirely Scott, but I’ll back up Ruud here for a second. His scoring rate for two seasons at Real was as good as it was for us, and he also managed two league titles. He’s reported transfer fee is so low because of his latest injury and age – you can’t deny he’s not done well for himself at Real.
What’s in a name Drabik??
Am glad he’s going, this will allow the players to focus more seriously on their roles in the club, and also for the likes of Rooney to get back to their preferred role in the team. Only trouble is who will replace him, need someone worth of wearing the No.7 shirt, the legacy of this fantastic club, worn by so many legends, even if Ronaldo is not a complete legend for me
Time for SAF to start bidding for some players out there, before its too late and we r left with some morons to buy lol
Yeah Ruud did ok at Real. But it’s one injury too many for him.If Perez hadn’t come along with his signings,he would have stayed at Real.
Bloody beautiful article.
A good post indeed. Still, RVN won the title two times during his first two years in Madrid. I’m not going to be happy at all if Ronaldo brings two titles in a roll for Real. And the rumours about RVN being sold for 1 million started when he is 32 and after he spent the whole season recovering from an injury…
Ah fuck it.
I was one who didnt mind if he left as long as we got the right money, now it’s happened I feel a bit, I dont know, like me bird has just dumped me, you know. £80M is fantastic money, but knowing I wont be seeing Winker again in a red shirt. I dont know.
Still, he does not want to be here, we won a good few cups, got £80m. I kinda hope he is average at the virus, cos he wont be the centre of everything, free kicks and pens.
I know now how other clubs fans feel when the best players go.
Just hope sir alex has a plan.
I seriously think Rooney is gonna blossom in Ronaldo’s absence.
Great article Scott btw!
For those who don’t forgive so easily.
Santander group (who own Abbey and Alliance and Liecester) gave Real an 80 mil interest free loan to buy Ronnie.
If you are uncomfortable with the thought that your bankaccount/mortgage/loan etc funded the transfer you might want to consider changing to a less nationalistic outfit.
Just a thought.
Viva ronaldo…tbh my heart is sad to see such a wonderful player leave, esp at 24,but my head says his HEART wasnt in it, and its time to move on…If only we had more sun in this country! lol. im excited as well because surely someone will arrive with the promise of filling rons boots, so turn up the beat and let the music play on…utd utd utd!
Like when Ruud left, winker came into his own.
Well, now White Pele will, and Berba will show the class he has.
Well said Scott, you summed up my feelings on the entire incident.
Ronaldo came to Utd to play ball, CR7 went to Madrid to play Hollywood.
Off Topic guys..
There one or two rumours about Vida leaving us..
I hope there is no truth in it.
I hope that virus of a club Real win nothing at all. NOTHING!
@ ZAE: neither would I go out with paris… but maybe she’s got nice girlfriends
@Smudger: i do not believe he would go… it’s his wife who wants to leave manchester…
Good post man, really good. I’m sad we’re letting him go. I can’t see no one to replace him, but I sure see that we can cope without him.
Let’s get Benzema, David Silva, Robinho and Ribery. That would do it!
Great Blog Scott , Spot on . Just want to add that apart from CR7s own skills he was ably supported by a great squad of players ,They deserve his recognition for all the honours he has received also .
Ive said it before . The king is dead , Long live the King .
Perhaps now others will take the opportunity to step up . I’M willing Rooney on . He is everything i want in a United player.
I will never disrespect Ronaldo but i will never forgive or forget his attitude to our club, that gave him the stage to display his skill .
I’m really gonna miss him! I hated him for treated us like shit throughout the summer, and as the season went on, his tantrums frustrated me just as much as his reluctance to get back and help the team.
But in the final weeks of the season, I began to soften to him again, as did the fans as you could here his songs being sung louder and by more people. Then there was that self interview on Sky. That was the point where he told me “this is my home”, that was the point where I told myself, “yes, I reckon he’ll be here next year”. That was 3 weeks ago the fucker.
Love! Hate! Tis is a strange feeling I’m left with. But quite simply we have to get to the CL final next year, WE HAVE TO. I want Ronnie to sit there and watch us get revenge on Barca, at his home stadium. Then I want him to watch England beat Portugal in the World Cup final, with Rooney scoring the winner.
I’m gonna miss him, but I do not wish him well. He could have been a legend for us, but apparently, that isn’t good enough?!?
Thanks for everything, thanks for nothing!
Vidic will just have to get a divorce then!!!!
top article, nail hit on the head!
Dou you have some smart beautiful women in Manchester ? ))
Alexis Sanches ? I hope it’s true and he has the talent.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/04/30/1238224/cristiano-ronaldo-hopes-to-emulate-manchester-united-team-mate-ry
Yeah right.
Congrats on the Independent quote Scott!
For me, what sums it up is the different opinion which we would all have clearly had if it had been Rooney leaving instead. for now I’m just glad we’ve got rid of the distraction and excited to see what we do with the cash.
A big momment for me was the third goal against arsenal, when Rooney ran the length of the pitch to roll in that perfect pass for Ronaldo to stick home. Instead of running to his team mate who had created the goal, he ran off on his own – loving himself. And that did it for me. I went mad when the goal went in and I almost stopped cheering seconds later when I saw that.
I’m glad that sort of thing is in the past now frankly.
@ Manc magic
Lol not a bad idea!
But on a serious note, we can’t afford to lose any more players..
Can’t wait for the season to start!! Hope we prove all the morons wrong by winning our 4th title in a row!!
The Mirror says Fraizer is gone to Hull.
6 mln record transfer for Hull City and £45,000 a week for Fraizer.
Not bad but gutted to see him go. Good luck, lad.
Excellent piece, probably encapsulated the views of the vast majority of United fans.
While it’s not the end of the world for me, I’m sad that Ronaldo’s going for two reasons: the fact that we’re saying goodbye to possibly the most exciting player I personally have seen ‘live’ (I only caught the fag-end years of George Best), and particularly the fact that we’re letting him go to ‘that mob’ in Madrid – I don’t like the thought that we’ve been bullied into selling him.
Good luck, Ronny, and thanks for the memories…but we won’t miss the personality flaws.
If, as we’re being told, the whole deal was set up months ago, I’m wondering whether the signing of Tosic and Ljajic in January was done with Ronaldo’s exit in mind. After all, why pay big money for the pair if the prime intention was for one of them was to stay with his club on loan while the other wallowed in the reserves. From what we saw of Tosic in the reserves towards the back end of the season we may already have someone ready to step up to the plate, if you’ll excuse the cliche?
Should that scenario be right, our admiration for the shrewd planning of our manager can only grow. We wrong-footed our rivals two summers ago with the one-day coup that brought Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves to OT. With the two Serbs, have clever Fergie and Gill done it again?
I just hope that now we’ve got ‘£100m to burn’ (according to the Daily Mail) we spend the money wisely. When we sold Becks we bought in Liam Miller, Djemba Djemba, Bellion, Kleberson and Tim Howard before picking up Ronaldo almost as an afterthought. Also, we wasted £30m in my opinion on Berbatov last summer – not only is he not the player we thought we were getting, his presence completely undermined Tevez (if you don’t believe me, try to catch an MUTV re-run of our pre-Berba win at Portsmouth last August when Carlos was sensational and totally unrecognisable from the unhappy shadow of a player who ended the season).
Signing a marquee name might be good for the machismo of the club and fans, but we’ve tended to do better with the unheralded players who have arrived. We’re being linked with a host of Brazilians (the names Dodo and Douglas Costa keep coming up) and, with the exception of Kleberson, we’ve done pretty well with our young players from that country.
what a superb piece of blogging, has to be one of the best sport blog entries i’ve ever read!way to go!
Will miss watching Ronaldo in a red shirt but glad its over. With the front pages of every newspaper covered in pictures of Ronaldo and Paris Hilton my gut tells me Fergie has yet again made the correct decision.
It cannot be denied that Ronaldo is a terrific player. His years at United have seen him blossom into arguably the best player in world football. But it has come at a price. The sickening celebrity culture has a new hero. As self absorbed as the rest of the tiny minded fools who follow it.
When the coming season gets underway i for one will not waste too much energy wishing Ronaldo was still a red. I’ll just look at the banners that hang from the Stretford end and be thankful that i follow a club of real substance.A club that understands the damage celebrety can wreak on team development.
Circus Bernabeu has a new hero. I wonder will their fans commission a new banner for next season? “- ROLL UP! ROLL UP! SEE THE £80 MILL PLAYER!,SEE THE BEARDED LADY!, SEE THE TALKING CAT!!! ”
I much prefer 20LEGEND!!!
Cheers Ronny! See you around!!!
Perfectly said Scott. The Ronaldo Reaction piece to end all Ronaldo Reaction pieces.
MDRed@ 13:21 – I’m in agreement with most of your sentiments. Alas, the fact of the matter is that Glazer’s UTD absolutely must re-gain a CL spot so I don’t think that there will be patience shown with promising young players to allow them to develop. That’s why, in my belief, the money from TheVirus will be spent on super-stars.
I’d spend the lot on Daniele di Rossi and Karim Benzema; if there’s more left over from that then I’d look long and hard at Gigi Buffon since I’m not convinced by either Kuczszak or Foster. Either way, the formation will change as the shape of the team on the field will no longer be arranged to funnel the ball to CR; this should give more freedom to both Rooney and Berbatov. Those two will best flourish with a “bulldozer” in front of them – Benzema is the best option in this regard although I read something a couple of days ago which suggested that an outside chance might be Pavel Pogrebnyak of CSKA Moscow, the 6’2″ striker who scored two against Ingerland to destroy SecondChoiceSteve’s managerial career and went a long way towards knocking Ingerland out of Euro2008. Either of these guys would give the attack some power up-front and both Rooney and Berbatov would flourish in the space behind. But, really, who knows, eh ?
di Rossi is a great midfielder in the Roy Keane-style of “animal”; so, too, is Gennaro Gattuso who is 31 but so was Marcos Senna of Villareal when SAF went for Owen Hargreaves a few years ago. Like Senna – and Keane-o – Gattuso has the heart of a lion, which is something that this team has sometimes lacked.
I was wrong about Ronaldo’s future – I thought that the Nike tie-in made his stay in M/C too lucrative for TheVirus to buy him but the reports in the various online sites I have read make it evident that he is going to receive an incredible 106 MILLION EUROS over the six-year length of his time in Madrid. He’s laughing all the way to the bank. And even the muscle-power of UTD/Nike couldn’t compete with that.
The other interesting tid-bit I’ve picked up in my last day of web-surfing has been that the deal was done in less than two hours – three phone calls from Gill to SAF, GlazerCentral, and CR’s agent did the business. It would seem that once RM came up with the agree-on fee – agreed on last summer it seems – then the deal was done-and-dusted as UTD realized that it was time to cut and run, with 80 million reasons to do so.
Ronaldo was at Old Trafford for six years – his first appearance against Bolton was electric; he rarely failed to do something dazzling in a game. He was a UTD-player for longer than Cantona and for about as long as George Best was sober. In his last three years the team was awesome, although it’s arguable that he had peaked in his fifth year when he scored those 42 goals and was not as effective this past year in spite of some moments of incredible brilliance in the last month of the season – those CL goals against TheArse and Porto as well as that header to put UTD in the lead against Spurs at OT which, coupled with his two goals against Aston Villa, sealed the trifecta in the EPL. IF the rebound from that fantastic free kick against Barcelona had been knocked in by ThreeLungPark in the second minute of the CL final then perhaps we would have had an even more amazing swan-song. But, still and all, I revelled in his heroics – and winced at his theatrics.
But life goes on; the team’s core is strong, young, and promising. To be sure, there are chinks in the armour but there’s a lot of money to fix that – not just the 80 million from TheVirus but also the new, improved shirt-sponsorship, the 100 million from prize money from EPL and CL, plus the funds which were allocated for the Tevez purchase. The next month or six weeks now have an interest and excitement which would have been lacking without this latest installment of “As The World Turns”.
I’m a firm believer that footie is, after all, entertainment and that “if it ain’t melodrama, it’s shite”. And Ronaldo has given all of us great melodrama and his leaving gives us the promise of more to come.
-Yea, Ruud on a free or dirt cheap could be interesting. No harm having someone who can tap them in. Looks like Valencia is coming, but that only solves the problem on 1 side of the wing, we need another winger so that Rooney can play up front. Tevez leaving might also be good news for Rooney, so that there won’t be a situation where Sir Alex can put Tevez & Berbatov up front and push Rooney out wide, which happened way too many times this season.
-For all the links to the Benzemas & Riberys, I feel I would be happier to hear us being linked to younger players, who have much to prove, the likes of Sanchez gets me excited more than Ribery. But of course we also have players who are already with us, Nani could yet prove to be good, Tosic and his pal, Macheda, Wellbeck, Morrison, etc. Hope someone steps up. And the 1 person who definitely has to, is Rooney
Btw, now that CR is hitched up with Hilton, thats one more reason we should be glad he is gone. Don’t need more media circus do we? Victoria took down Beckham, lets see how Hilton brings the circus to Madrid.
Just give Manchester United 100 million and then sit back and watch the media frenzy. The latest names to be linked with us:Alexis Sanchez and (this is a good one) Mirko Vucinic.
Let’s all wait and see what happens at the Confederations Cup…….Giuseppe Rossi will be one to watch…..hopefully he will score loads of goals and Fergie will be watching…
plus we could get him for a decent price
I truly believe that we won this years Premiership by playing most of the time with 10 and a half men. Ronaldo’s mind was obviously somewhere else. Had he been committed as the year before, we would have been Champions long before May.
I have to say that for all the joy that he brought us over the years, he also brought us a great deal of frustrations as well, with excessive showboating and play acting, going to ground to easily, often ignoring others players etc.
Even when he was pledging his ‘loyalty’ to us, I always believed that those were just his little games. He jumped at the chance to aggravate his relationship with Fergie, knowing that that would be a certain one way ticket out of Manchester.
That’s why I think we will be better without him. With one or two extra signings we will still be the team to beat in the Premiership.
How I wish that the Real Madrid Soup is spoiled by too many chefs that they are gathering there.
I hope Ronaldo lives to regret the day he left Manchester United.
Gilbert @ 14:17 – forget this business about “decent price”, UTD aren’t shopping at Tesco or M&S any more. They’re shopping at Harrods and are going to have to pay those prices. The days of finding a player like Kevin Keegan in the old third division and seeing him make an instant impact on a winning team are over – dead. Since the beginning of the EPL – now almost twenty years ago – UTD have always paid the price for successful recruitment. The only time there was a reversion to the “bottom feeder” practices – when Djemba-Djemba, Liam whathisname, and the Brazilian failure were bought on the cheap – it turned out awfully. The only way to get a bargain nowadays is to go shopping in markets like Serbia and Brazil where there’s a lot of talent which can be purchased relatively cheaply. Otherwise, there’s not much local talent that hasn’t been exhaustively scouted in England, France, Spain, Italy, or Germany – and it’s all priced accordingly. Glen Johnson = 22 million quid, for Chrissakes ! Darren Bent = 17 million !!
Very good article Scott!
We now know why Fergie tolerated the bastard’s tantrums this season. The hair dryer would have only deflated his ego and negatively affected his game.
I respect him for all the magic he gave us but wouldn’t be too disappointed to see a section of our crowd boo him the next time he visits OT.
Xyth @ 14:37 = UTD won with10.5 man team. Not quite – UTD won because they didn’t let the shite/dross/pretenders get much of a sniff plus they had that amazing streak where no one could shoot on goal, let alone score. Those were the points UTD banked and which, equally, LiverPoo failed to get. That was the difference. Don’t downgrade CR’s contribution – he scored 18 which included some really crucial goals against Villa and Spurs when the going was tough.
Manchester United > Ronaldo ….FACT
Great article scott. Really summed up the complete time that Ronaldo was with us. To be fair after reading this i’ve mellowed a bit towards Ronaldo. After all he has gave us some beautiful moments to remember and cherish forever. Also the way everyone hated him made us support him more and more. And even though he was not at his best this season still he was one of the top 3 players on this planet. Now that he is gone i really hope that we’ll have to rely lesser on individuals and it’ll be the team that counts. Their are exciting times ahead . At this time i’m wishing that like Fifa manager this time could be simulated and i could reach august in an instant. In Short i want the new season to start as soon as possible. . Finally Many thanks to Ronaldo for whatever he has done for us. I really want him to win a La liga title there but one thing that i really hope is he doesn’t win another champions league title there.
He is still a tosser and now he is their tosser so why should we show any gratitude to him if he plays against us ? He owes everything to Sir Alex and Manchester United not the other way around. We won before Ronaldo and we will win after Ronaldo. Exactly how good he is will be proven at Real Madrid. I still think he will realise how much the rest of the team contributed to all the success he shared at Old Trafford. WATCH HIM GET MORE AND MORE PISSY AS IT TURNS OUT TO BE NOT ALL HE DREAMED IT WOULD BE.
Real have the same defence as last season minus Cannavaro, unless they sign a world class centre half how will things improve?
They struggled with ball retention against the top teams and Kaka and Ronnie will not solve that problem.
Barca will win La Liga and the Champs League is wide open…
Pellegrini is a good manager but has never dealt with a team full of ego’s so i cannot see this working.
Ronnie will regret this decision.
Getting rid of Ronaldo has been a gift from Sir Alex Ferguson and the reason he got rid of him is because of his love for Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson knows that he is going to retire soon but rather than selfishly keeping ronaldo until he retired, he chose the noble path. He got rid of him now and will once again begin the task of building a new team. Whoever the new Boss will be, will be giving a chance to win, he will be given a complete team. Long Live Sir Alex Ferguson !!! Long Live Sir Alex Ferguson !!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jun/11/cristiano-ronaldo-irreplaceable-manchester-united
Is it just me, but when the media talk about us now buying tevez i roll my eyes? Just because we may have come into a sizeable bit of cash doesnt mean the asking price is now acceptable, good player like but still not a patch
You know my feelings about Ronaldo for quite a while now Scott, and it’s along the same lines of what you expressed. When he first started playing for us I thought he was an arrogant show pony who lost possession while trying to look clever. Fast forward a few years later Fergie honed his skills to serve our ambitions and it worked beautifully, but he still was the arrogant show pony except now he was delivering and that made it more tolerable. I never sang his song because he didn’t elicit that feeling I get when I would sing for Giggs, Scholes or Neville; he always felt like a hired hand rather than a player who plays for the shirt. Now I understand the modern game and I’ve reconciled my feelings about the lack of loyal players, so I was happy he was contributing to the club in very meaningful ways but I knew he was on his way out and just hoped it would have been done in a respectful way unlike the nonsense of last summer.
I’m in a state of mourning at the moment, quite frankly.
Yes, Park, Nani and Tosic sounds weak. We’ll have to buy someone to that position, that’s for sure.
But i really hope Hargo gets well pretty soon and we’ll have another possible player who can play on the wing. Still remember his game against Roma. He was excellent that day at unusual position on the pitch.
One player gone and it’s like the half of the midfield gone missing.
I think that Guardian articla is a load of horse shit. When he plays for United he’s a shadow of the player Messi is, he’s inconsistent, he disappears in big games etc – when he leaves United he’s some kind of footballing god, the like of which has never been seen on the planet earth.
Give me a break
The Indian Prime Minister is set to meet his Pakistani counterpart..the UN declared the swine flue a global pandemic yet the front page headline on every newspaper is about Ronaldo’s tranfer…and i’m taking about India, half a world across and where half the country still thinks Pele will win Brazil the world cup next year. The point i’m trying to make is that while the world is going mad over this transfer, and considering it supposedly should bother us the most, its almost unnerving to see how less affected we are. We’ve just sold one of the best players in the world, yet most of us aren’t too pertubed and rightfully so. Now its hard for me to say this without sounding like a hypocrite considering i repeatedly called for supporting him in spite of his antics, but i’m glad he’s sold. For that money, and the potential to improve it brings along, its a very good deal. Besides it seemed like he was becoming an elephant in the room that few really noticed, i’ve felt for some time and i’d say it openly now i feel Rooney couldn’t have reached his full potential as long as Ronaldo was in the side. Nani would be too obvious to mention but besides them indivisuals i feel too many attacks went thru him (partially because he could carry them off) simply because he was him. There is no resentment towards him, the best i can offer him is my apathy its just that i see too many certain positives coming out of this that hard not to feel good about it before the press starts predicting our demise. So while Scott might like the idea of the world disliking our players, once again i’ll say i’m glad to see the back of the player who single handedly made United the most hated club in this country.
Hasan – Whilst I agree with some of your points I think United need a “pantomime villain” that the rest of the Premier league can hate to give us that siege mentality. We have always had one. Robson was slated by alot of non United fans. Then Eric, Keano, Becks etc.
Wondered how long it would take the deluded dippers to start calling Talk shite and saying we are finished now. Lets see next season shall we.
We still have plenty of that kind of players.
They can all hate Wazza, Berba, Nani in case he develops into a quality thoughtful player etc.
Yes, there is no other Ronaldo but he was just a bait.
The success is the source of all hate you can get. The envy.
Well well well what can i say about Ronnie???
First of all i would like to thank him for the incredible 6 years he gave us watching him playing with the United shir was amazing he showed why the players wanted him so much after the sporting lisbon friendly.
He’s a player with a huge gift but as Scott said at the begining of the blog he SHOWED a LACK of respect toward UNITED and the manager (a manager who helped him through out bad times) and the fans who loved him so much for 6 years.
I was pissed off last year when Ronaldo never made a comment about his possible and imminent move to Madrid (remeber im talking about summer 2008) he always said “the future only god knows what happen” nothing more than that,never said im not going anywhere or i am here to stay or i like it here and i wanna stay here,comments made by him this summer in the last couple of weeks,when he knew very well he was about to leave,cos everybody knew it since last summer!
Now playing tricks is in Ronaldo’s way to do,but i dont think UNITED ever showed him the same lack of respect he showed in the last couple of weeks!
Im sure Sir Alex was agree with him to let him go this summer and we will be paid lot of money,but again Real came to knock to OUR door and we let the players go,look at Ruud Becksy Heinze now Ronaldo (i know all of them had problems with Fergie or has been sell for different reason) but this wont change the fact Real took us for their own and prefered SUPERMAKET!
i wish Ronnie all the best as player but nothing more than this.
I was pissed about him last year and im still pissed off this year but more i hate REAL,REAL my arse!
They dont know what respect is-even though respect in world of football has gone long time ago-they always look for others players acting like they are the owner of football no one touch them even when they not follow the rules this the thing i hate most about them.
FUCK THEM and Thank to Ronnie now let’s spend those money doing the first proper thing,in buying Carlitos!
Adios amigo!
there’s not one player bigger than UNITED and Ronaldo is not different WE’LL NEVER DIE!
SEPP BLATTER you are very predictable….
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11667_5376909,00.html
good article, in the end whether it is a good move for United we will only know at the end of next season.
well put Scott
“he was our tosser”
viva ronaldo!
Alpha,he is a old fart.
Costas, he is a hypocrite. Anyone but United, Anyone but England.
And you know what the worst part is?He is not even trying to hide his satisfaction!At least Platini put in a half-assed effort to do that.An economic crisis has demoralised mane corporations, millions of people are losing their jobs, but all that matters for the twat is that the slave is free.
I couldn’t see Blatter hiding his delight when he presented Barcelona with the trophy in the Final though. He was absolutely glowing!
I see the Glazers have said that it is exactly up to Sir Alex how he spends the FULL £80 million. At least the cunts are not taking three quarters of it for the debt.
Didn’t see that. To be honest i have still not seen the trophy presentation.I can’t do it.Each United player who stood there swallowing his pride, has my respect.Since we are rebuilding our attacking play,I don’t know if United will be ready for the Madrid final next year.But i will love it if Real get there,only to get humiliated.Imagine if Barcelona get to the final and beat them at their own home.All the money for Kaka and Ronaldo would have been for nothing!
http://www.tribalfootball.com/top-players-find-premier-league-too-taxing-250361
Income tax issue i was telling you a couple of weeks ago..
Corea – Aww the poor little things, aren’t they hard done by!
It was not childish to refuse to sing Viva Ronaldo Scott it was justified and proper. Things werent the same after last summer and I’m glad to see him go. People might refer to me as a Ronadlo hater because when he said United was his home blah, blah, blah I said I’d believe it when I saw it and ultimately my cyncism was proved right. However, I’d like to stress that I dont hate Ronaldo I still believe he’s the world’s #1 and that he will be successful in Spain. I just got bored of his sulking and there are 80 million reasons why I’m happy to see him go plus the thought of Wazza actually playing for us like he does for England, as a forward. Ronaldo was wonderful to watch but he was also great to see go.
maybe you can use some of the money to buy TEVEZ cos after all he’s not a man utd player… er, he belongs to another club, i mean a third party, oh shit, his economic rights belong to a third party but he belongs to man utd which makes it ok to play him even though he’s ineligible to play under the premier league rules on 3rd party ownership which it’s not so that’s why you have to pay £25m keep him. what a bollocks way to run a football club. ranks alongside roy carroll’s “save” from pedro mendez in the annals of shame.
That video of his goals is unbelievable. Every single goal that he scored in some way had brilliance in it!! He is an unbelievable player, best player in the world to watch live and so happy I saw so many of his goals live that season! His flirting with Madrid for so long leaves a sour taste but he’s already a legend for what he brought not only to Utd but to the Premier League. He’s the most gifted player we’ve had for a long time… You can’t sell your best players and expect to improve, but Utd always move on and come back.
We need to make a couple of good signings though now. I’m not convinced by Valencia, I think he’s hit and miss really and lacks the composure for our high tempo game. Benzema would be a good signing, we definitely need a new goal scorer who can play down the middle. A wide man is obviously essential too but no idea who we are going to get… Interesting to see if we switch to 4-4-2 and see more of Rooney through the centre with Berbatov.
Great post again Scott. Also great responses from Denton Davey.
I agree, great post from Scott and the always insightful Denton Davey!
There was another post that talked about being an “anti Ronaldo” but Scotts post “mellowing” his view. It did the same for me but in reverse!!
I’ve been a huge Ronaldo supporter and pissed at what I considered Scott’s “anti Ronaldo” agenda. I posted numerous times attacking Scott for not singing Viva Ronaldo. Only recently after viewing the Sky “self interview” I asked Scott to acknowledge he’s wrong and to agree that it was time to sing again.
Well Scott, I now agree totally with your postion as expressed in this article. I guess I was always hoping that this year’s attitude was all about the “world player of the year” etc going to a man boy’s head and that next season we’d again see the player and the attitude of 2007/8. Unfortunately, it was never going to be and I for one am prepared to bet that whilst Ronaldo will improve, HE”LL NEVER HAVE A SEASON LIKE THAT AGAIN!
Weren’t we lucky to witness it?!
Finally, the best piece of your whole post for me is your hope that if and when Real come to OT we stuff them but that Ronnie get’s the warm reception his fearless brilliance for us deserves.
Scott, we end up UNITED.
Viva Ronaldo!
Ronaldo = Premier League + Champions League
Valencia = Djemba + Djemba
When CR7 leaves thats it for me he is now a player for another team. I do not wish him well at Real. Hope Barca or Valencia win the La Liga for next 5 years.
Remember the last Galctshites era. Pretty much useless. Becks won 1 la Liga in 4 years.
Hope Ronnie and Real endure a nightmare. All that money and then one serious injury all up in smoke.
Trust In SAF he is the real genius here not Ronnie, Ruud, Becks. All great players but SAf is the all time greatest manager and any team is shit without a great manager. Thats something Real will never have. They will never keep a manager Examples are Capello and Del Bosque. Where were Forrest before Clough and where are they now?
Scott – Great article as usual. Just one point of disagreement. It really grinds me when people go on about how Ronnie’s summer of discontent ruined the summer after we won the EPL and CL. Why? To me I celebrated like a f**ckin looney. I didnt give a shiny shite if he was leaving or not – certainly not to the extent that I’d stop celebrating our season. Remember Utd>anyting (including the best player in the world tm)
just ignore him he is no longer man utd player.
he just likes to be centre of the world.
ignore him and let him be.
scott, very nice article, level headed writing, kudos
Great post Scott. Sums up the entire episode perfectly. I desperately wish none of the fans boo him when we meet Real in future. There is a tinge of sadness knowing he is leaving us just like how it felt when becks left. But then as a club and supporters of it, we move on. Time and again Fergie has proved no one is bigger than the club and it would be foolish to question the great man. And oh i forgot. Blatter is a cunt!
great article scot, i sang viva ronaldo til the end, though you are right he didn’t want to be here, he was our player. The more citeh and dippers hated him the more i loved him. he has done alot for our club .would like to see us go out and buy ashley young and give nani a run in the team.just seen in a paper that bayern want 90 mil for ribery. dont wanna see us held to ransome for players now. let tevez go and bring in benzema at the right price if not the lets trust our youngsters. lets hear them famous words again alan ysb hansen we won’t win any thing with kids haha fool.
thanks for a great service and entertainment ronny hope all goes pear shaped at madrid, not coz i’m bitter but coz i cant stand them spanish wankers
viva ronaldo
I believe selling ronaldo will extend SAF career by at least two years… less bitching, ego’s, etc. Knowing how SAF is a genious I’m sure we’ll be fine.
The bigger picture is being missed. This sale makes us look small, a club not big enough to have a World Player Of The Year who must necessarily move to a big club.
But Bayern, who were still stigmatised by Hargreaves’s departure despite securing top Euro for a broken piece of equipment, have smelt the coffee with Ribery and simply priced him out of the market, because the alternative is a fatal blow to their ability to attract and retain talent.
Keeping CR to the remaining years of his contract would have paid for itself through the success he would have brought over that time, even if he’d left on a free at the end. Now we’re seen to be shopping at Wigan and battling with the Kaka- snubbed City for the likes of Tevez and Eto’o, the latter a fantastic goal-scorer but a Barca cast-off, and no more guaranteed to adjust to the English game at his age than say Shevchenko or Deco.
Of course our club has been, is still, blessed to have SAF, that is a given, but he does still make mistakes and this rebuild could be one. I could take it if it meant Chelsea or Arsenal being No.1, we’ve been spoiled, but not fucking Cesspool, Jesus wake up people.
At he end of the day he had to go in the interest of both the club and himself…but i feel sorry when i think of what could have happened if he had stayed for his entire career with us…he would have gone on to break every record possible and become The Legend of world football…he still might achieve that but i doubt it…The truth is the club and the player were perfect for each other and that is what makes it hard..
Alexis Sanchez, Benzama, Costa and Defour? Remember Adam Lajanic will be on his way here in jan too! 80 + Mill worth of player there we need intellegence and craft in the midfield backed up by defensive midfielders who can allow the creaters to play. With Roo back up front with Benzama we’ll have a sharp cutting edge and more of an “all round team”. 4-3-3
VDS
Brown Vidic Rio Evra
Fletcher Defour Ando/Carrick
Sanchez Rooney Benzama
Meh, he’s not our cnut anymore, so I really couldn’t care less. I wish him nothing but failure in Madrid. Never really warmed to him, but thanks for what he has done. He is also the first human to lie to himself.
Couldnt agree more ” He is a tosser… but he was our tosser.”
Three years since Ruud left actually, and 63 goals in 93 goals, contributing towards two La Liga titles (more titles than he won with us of course), is hardly going downhill.
Great post Scott, great comments from DentonDavey (as usual). Nothing much to add, except what worries me most is not just replacing Ronaldo but replacing Scholes and Giggs, both of whom are entering the final furlongs of their wonderful careers. It’s not just the skill they bring to United it’s the team-building spirit, passion and the sheer canny experience of how to keep winning year after year after year. Those are the guys who are truly irreplaceable.
Giles – Yes but hopefully the likes of Wes, Fletch and even O’shea can keep that team building spirit going.
Great article.
Ronaldo is sure the greatest player in the world and he has an ego equal to it.
Its hard to part from a player like him but it was the time. Its the best thing united could have done. I don’t think he will play better there because man utd played for their star whereas there he will have to compete with the other stars.
Manchester united will be manchester united without christiano ronaldo but am not sure that christiano ronaldo will be christiano ronaldo without manchester united.
Goodbye ronaldo. Thanks for all the marvellous moments!!
P.S. The only one departure from united that will make me fear for united’s future is ALEX FERGUSSON