Ian Wright, who accurately described himself as a “jester” recently, has put me in quite a predicament with comments he made this week. The “loveable” cockney geezer first entered our lives back in 1990, coming on against us in the FA Cup final and turning the game around, forcing it in to a replay.
Since then, he joined our title rivals Arsenal and was their highest ever scorer until VaVaVoom tipped him at the top of the goalscoring table.
As a football player I’ve never like him, whilst acknolwedging his fine ability. But as a pundit, I’ve never rated him. His outrageous claims in support of Steven Gerrard diving just about finished off any chance I had for respecting the man.
With his overexcitable personality, studs first challenges, and crap footballer midget son, Ian Wright is one of those Marmite type people. You either love him or hate him. I hate him.
Which is why it pains me to agree entirely with what he has to say about Cristiano Ronaldo.
Wright spoke at length about our winger, calling him an embarrassment, claiming he was letting down the fans and manager, and that he is wrong to be in such a rush to leave.
As a player, there’s no doubt what you’re capable of. As a man, you’re not showing any class whatsoever. You’re also failing to show any respect to either Alex Ferguson or the Manchester United fans. To be honest, I’m embarrassed for you. You’re now 23 and you should not be acting quite so immature.
You’ve been at Old Trafford for five years but it’s only the last two seasons you’ve set the place on fire. Previous to that, Fergie stuck with you. Despite your diving and despite the fact you would always try to take on a defender rather than pass to a team-mate. When you acted a right winker at the World Cup two years ago, your club manager once again showed extreme loyalty to you, along with United’s fans. They could have turned on you after your behaviour during the England match in Germany but they didn’t.
You’ve now become one hell of a player – the best on this planet. I’d pay just to see you warm-up, let alone play a game. But with the drop of a hat, it seems you’re ready to join Real Madrid. What’s the rush? You’re still so young, for heaven’s sake. Surely you should give United another two years’ service before thinking about heading off to the Bernabeu. I understand if it’s your dream to play for Real but you owe it to United to be patient — and that’s why you should stay. Doesn’t the affection of United’s fans and your team-mates mean anything to you? I’m sure you’ve got advisors whispering in your ear but surely you have realised they could only be in it for the money, rather than your personal welfare. While Real may be tempting you with £300,000 a week after tax, how much money do you actually want? If you stay in Manchester, you could be banking £7.5million a year. It shouldn’t be about money at all, in any case. At the end of the season, I’d have loved it if you had said ‘I’m not interested in joining Real — I’m happy at United.’ But you didn’t. You gave a smile and said you’d let us know ‘in two or three weeks.’ You may have thought you were being funny but no one was laughing.
Even if you do surprise us and decide to stay at United, I’m not convinced your heart will be in the job. Not after your recent behaviour. In 12 months’ time, we’ll end up with another similar will-he-leave-or-will-he-stay pantomime. Arsenal had this with Patrick Vieira and it didn’t do anyone any good. Having a player in this situation is a bit like having a girlfriend who is unhappy. There comes a time when you just have to split.
Of course, I know you’re not the only one to blame in this. It seems Real have again shown they have a disregard for other clubs and the rules of football. But they’ll continue to act like this, as long as they’re allowed to get away with it. It’s a sorry reminder that football can be a real cesspit. I’d love it if you could show some guts and prove us wrong by staying with United. Sadly, I don’t think you will.
Scarily, Ian Wright gets it just about spot on. Of course, the incidents of the World Cup were no bother to most United fans, but if we look at what a player we have turned him in to, it’s scandalous for him to piss about with us over his future.
For the benefit of his career, staying at United would be far more suitable. Real Madrid is a club you join when you’ve done your developing, when you’re ready to earn the big bucks and lap up the praise over the great player you have become. But does Ronaldo honestly believe he’ll get to continue improving at the rate he has with us at Real Madrid? Does he reckon he will get the same service on the field there? Surely his ego is big enough to believe the fans will love him as much as we once did, but he will be left disappointed. Like Beckham and Ruud before him, it will be Ronaldo who can’t stop talking about United after he leaves, when he realises that the way after Manchester United, more often than not, is down. Then he will wish he had taken a bit more time to listen to the words of experience from Beckham.
Now, there is no element of surprise in this trafer saga, (one of the many we’ve been involved in recently, from Mikel and Heinze, then Tevez to Hargreaves) as we’ve always known Ronaldo wasn’t a red for life. We can look at players like Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Nemanja Vidic, and see them spending a good chunk of their career, if not all their football years, at the least the peak ones, playing for our club. We knew this was never going to be the case with Ronaldo, but I just don’t think any of us anticipated the move to happen so soon.
He is the best player in the World and he got to that point because of us. He owes us more than one year of playing whilst holding this status.
However, now, for a lot of United fans, his future with our club is unattainable, best player in the World or not.
IfIf we’re basing it solely on Champions League wins… then I suppose Forest & Villa are ‘bigger’ than Arsenal. Likewise Liverpool are bigger than Man Yoo then.
You choose…
Arsenal Fan….want Ronaldo to leave, but can understand exactly how you guys will feel if he does. As with the likes of Anelka, Overmars etc, the risk with foreign players is that english teams are seldom the team tehy most want to play for in the world. Man U and Arsenal my be better teams to play for (and I’ll concede Man U currently give more chance of trophies), but they don’t inspire the same sense of worldwide awa as Real Madrid, Barca, Milan….
At least if he does leave, you will get so much money for him the squad shouldn’t significantly weaken. From a spectacle point of view it would be sad to see him go, but if he doesn’t play for my lot, i’d prefer him in spain. Having said that, he might yet stay…
I did not base it solely on CL wins, ‘Scott the Red’ did. He mentioned Forest & Villa, obviously because they have won the CL and we haven’t. But if that’s the case then it proves my argument about who’s the better and bigger club between Man U and Real…Real’s 9 CL wins to Man U’s 3, based on that Ronaldo IS going to a bigger club.
I love Man U fans, my whole argument was who are the bigger club, Man U or Real and it got turned into something else as usual. You start bringing up Arsenal’s achievements, which has nothing to do with the debate. Read my posts and you will see what I was debating!!!
Scott the Red…1 European Cup does not a bigger club make. Or are you aplying for the position of liverpools shadow?
Utd and Liverpool are Englands biggest clubs, and probably Arsenal next. consistant success over extended periods of time. Chelsea are medium sized club with big money, and Villa are no bigger than Everton, City, Spuds or Newcastle. Forest are smallish club that ahd 4 or 5 great years…
So how do you define a big club? If it’s not down to how many European Cups a club have won (ie. Forest 2 – Arsenal 0. Real 9 – United 3).
The talk of debt has nothing to do with the size of the club, because it wasn’t going in to debt that made us a success. If anything, being a success took us in to debt, attracting the Glazers to buy us.
For four years running United have been named the richest football club. That is in terms of how much money the club is worth.
For me, the biggest club has to have a combination of both a great past and a great present.
United are financially the biggest club in the World, which suggests we have a farther reaching fanbase within the World, bringing in more money. We’re also back to back Champions of the best league in Europe (read:the World) as well as European Champions.
For me, that makes us the biggest club in the World. If you go by different criteria, that is fine. We can both argue our point, disagree with the other whole heartedly, but essentially, it’s just an opinion isn’t it.
that’s 2 words. retard
What is it with this big club small club crap? this is why football will never change because everyone wants to play for only a few teams, thats rubbish. Its funny beacuse i dont remember anyone wanting to go to Chelsea before the Russian dude, now they have all this money, they are a big club also. It seems anyone can become a big club, just get someone to throw money at the team.
As far as Ronaldo, he signed a contract, Dream team my backside! If I was a Manager a player could cry blood, he would not leave until I was good and ready, if this does not happen the game of football will turn to crap.
I hear some people say he owes Man U nothing, yes he does, to fulfill his contract (An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law).
I ask you who think he should just leave, what if he decides to want to play for Barca the next season, AC the next, juve next and so on and so on, would that be ok? according to you it should be as he owes no team anything. This may be extreme but it should be looked at as ok if you have the mindset of players not honoring their contract.
I am an Arsenal fan and Man U have aslo been guilty of this (Hargreaves, Tevez), however it still does not make it right!!!
God Bless!!
Anyone but United, explain how Real are a bigger club then United? If there so big how comes the Bernabeu is half empty nearly all the time the play there? Also Real may have 9 European cups but they won the first 4 or 5 when no sod entered the bloody competition. Anyone but United, that name says it all, that name in it its self shows your extremely jelous of United for the fact they are the most recognised club in the world.
im glad to see that most arsenal fans talk a whole lot more sense than scousers .
they’ve always been the more level headed fans amongst the ‘big 4′ supporters .
and when it comes down to ‘which is the biggest club in the world arguement”…theres a few points to consider –
a) mancunians always regard united as THE biggest club in the world . for every single reason that scott has stated . why should we even contemplate thinking otherwise ?
b) SADLY the rest of the footballing world bows down before madrid . ask any other football fan and they would tell you that madrid is the biggest .
c) HOWEVER ask a layman , someone who knows nought about football to name just1 football club . pat comes the reply – MANCHESTER UNITED!!!
make up your minds………
p.s. – i think ours would become a far more likeable club with the exit of that madeira prick . most neutrals hate us just because of his antics on and off the pitch
Let him go, I would rather should one who knows what to wear the famous red 7 shirt means. Cantona is a utd legend, ronaldo is a winker
Im An Arsenal Fan And I Think If Ronaldo Goes it Will Be A Big Loss To The Premire League And Id ate To See It Happen
Anant who are these people that bow down to Madrid and say there the biggest club in the world? I gaurantee you Anant that United are the biggest draw in world football. United tickets are worth more on the market then any other club because of the demand to see us, everyone wants a peice of United. The Bernabeu is half empty unless there playing in a massive match, so how are they the biggest club in the world? When we played Real in 2003 the Madrid fans couldnt even sell out there away allocation! Biggest club in the world? I dont think so pal
Anant: I dont care if anyone likes us or hates us. We are who we are, Ronaldo or no Ronaldo.
Other than that, good points mate.
maybe the Gods knew why he did not let him come to Arsenal because we would b feeling the knife in our backs.
some of the gooners on this site have been verry commendable…as a fan of the EPL, we, ve been dominating europe for the last 2-3 years, it was only a matter of time b4 the continental t*ats came and queered the pitch…
All the 4 EPL teams will be weaker this year, except the dippers, but theyre s*ite anyway…scolari wont have a clue about engerlund, and the spine of their team is leaving.
Arsenal’s players are leaving left and right, would’nt be surprised if adebayor left next. You simply have to pa players more wages. How is it this complaint is not heard at man utd and their wage bill is onyl slightly higher than arsenal? theyre paying captain cry baby 100k a week and not giving adebaor parity…But they surely did deserve at least a trophy this year…shows that you need to take the FA cup more seriously…
Personally, I dont feel anything about ronaldo leaving. The portugal games should have convinced just about everybody that he is indeed the best player in the world, and the better he plays the higher his value goes…if we bleed that fascist club dry in return, we ll be ok.
Its always better to have a more balanced team and we could spend the money on better players in a few positions, that is in case those glazer t*ats give fergie that money…
agree with Anant on June 12, 2008 21:22
think ours would become a far more likeable club with the exit of that madeira prick . most neutrals hate us just because of his antics on and off the pitch
But could he please take Eboue with him
And if Adebayor(the hapless massai warrior) wants £4m a year take that muppet too
It’s fucking horrible. I’m Arsenal but my heart went out to you lot when I heard of Real’s interest, it’s a relentless pursuit conducted in the most unethical of ways. He’ll go, they all do I’m afraid to say.
” His outrageous claims in support of Steven Gerrard diving just about finished off any chance I had for respecting the man.” soo i take it you’ve never seen gerrard play then.
I’m also a Gooner but I have to say, as much as I’d like to see the back of him because with you guys you are a far better team (I know you pretty damn good anyway -before you start!), the ways thos Real Madrid c**ts have turned his head is uforgiveable. Good on you lot for reporting him to FIFA but I doubt they will do very much. That to$$er of a president of theirs is an arrogant son of a b1tch and I would love to see them slapped down. Ronaldo has had his head turned and its understandable, its happened to our players enpough. Yes he should stay loyal but the problem is the like of Real, AC, Inter, Barceloan etc. think they can tap up who they like and its dead wrong. If yoiu stop them then you stop this head turning. Agents are also $cumbags who only think about their commision evrytime their player moves…
I think he’s gonna go and the Premier League will be the worse for it but FIFA must take action against those w***ers in Madrid. Until that happens this will happen time and time again as foreigners will be seduced by the supposed ‘glamour of the big Spanish and Italian sides… plus, to be honest Madrid and Barca are somewhat warmer places to live than Mancunia or London!!
Ronaldo for you. Flamini, Hleb, Abebayor for us.,
OK, maybe they are not in the same class, but its a right pain in the arse (yeah yeah).
so…do ferguson / wenger take a stand and refuse to sell. not sure the clubs can afford to, but in the long term it might even out the balance. at the moment, all the power is with the players (and their agents). something needs to be done to address this.
shooting all agents would be a start. the whispering inthe ears doensnt help. Adebayor, for example, is all down to his agent.
but I hope ferguson / the glazers have the balls and money to refuse to let him leave. say no. say you can play if you give it your all, if not you are in the reserves. Id completely respect you for that, and would love us to do the same with ade, if he does try to go.
but I doubt this will happen. the stakes are too high. and the outlook to short term.
they’re all wankers. oh well, eh.
As an Arsenal fan I can sincerely say Ian Wright is the dumbest football fan on the planet. He’s got charm, but is as thick as two planks. What an idiot!
Talking about loyalty and money, and LOOK WHAT HIS SON DID! Where was the advice there? He could have flourished at Arsenal, or maybe even Man U.
And yeah, Ronaldo is being a bit of a twat, but I believe anyone would if the figure of £300,000 is true. He is an alpha male and will definitely want that kind of money and star status.
As an Arsenal fan, i want him to leave. If I were a Utd fan i would still want him to leave. As a football fan i don’t.
He is nothing short of disgrace and has treated Utd like sh1t.
Furthermore, Rooney will benefit from his departure because he has become one of the most promising taents in the world into an expensive utility man.
Kobras – yes of course I’ve seen Gerrard play. And when he dived, Ian Wright defended him, saying it was OK to dive because other players would do it to England.
I’m a Gooner, but I don’t deny your right to say you’re a better team than us or Liverpool, becauseyou have just won some pretty major trophies. Fair play, hats off etc. But that sort of success doesn’t last forever and soon enough (with or without Ronaldo) you’ll hit a dry spell and win nothing while Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool do. Be realistic and stop being such fanboys. Anyway, look at the facts, Ronaldo’s dream is to play for Madrid and they’re willing to pay him more money. Would you pass up a pay rise? Of course you wouldn’t. Football is a business now and as much as we’d like to believe that it’s still about the love of your club and the game itself, it isn’t. It’s about the amount of 0’s on your payslip. Personally, I think Ronaldo is a tosser for his willingness to dive (I believe about 2 minutes into Portugal v Turkey) even though SAF claims he’s changed, his incident with Rooney in the World Cup and now the way he’s handling this whoe Real saga. However, when he’s on his feet and actually playing football he’s a joy to watch. It’s because of this that he’s in demand so don’t be so incredulous that Madrid are making the eyes at him. You’ll do alright without him I’m sure and if you don’t win anything it’ll more likely be due to another team being better, than you being worse for not having the Plastic Portuguese one. Anyway, Chelsea are gonna win everything now they’ve got Scolari right?!
hey scott what are all this cuntish gooners doing on our blog. One would think that after a humiliating season like they had we wouldn’t hear from them in some time. And what happened to their short memories?Weren’t they the ones who were saying that Ronaldo is diver and not a good player, now ithey say that he is the best player and we are screwed if he leaves.
To every gooner, please don’t worry about us, we will pull through, I am sure about that. And to every idiot, who claims that he goes to a bigger club, I will say “Yeh, bigger then you club”.
I think he will stay or rather SAF will make him to stay, but I hope that fans at OT will give him hell for the next season.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- I don’t think he’ll be leaving this summer.
HAVING SAID THAT, I WOULD RATHER HE FCUK OFF OUT OF UNITED ASAP.
And you feckless idiots sitting around here talking about not owing United anything?!!? About it being a business and crap?? Footballers perform best when they’re happy, the club, their team-mates, not least of all the management ensure that. They do so by guiding him, patting him on the back when things aren’t going so well (Cris Ron’s first season and the winkergate episode being the cases in point) and investing personal emotion into it all- if he was treated like a twat throughout how in the hell would he have gone on to play the way he did??
He was born with a prodigious talent, rough around the edges, Sporting Lisbon saw glimpses of it and United helped him develop it, helped him become the player he is. Beyond that, having a water-tight defence backing him up gave him the freedom to play the way he did. Changing the tactics to suit his style of play helped to play the way he did. Who the fcuk are you idiots kidding when you say he made himself????? SHEESH- and this inferiorirty/superiority complex doesn’t come into it either, the facts state United are the biggest club in the world right here right now. Madrid, a bit like Liverpool, enjoyed European domination in a bygone era. The Madrid teams of post Zidane and Makelele have been shite, they won La Liga this season because Villareal’s inexperience told in the end, and Barcelona’s ineptitude- look into their season and realise they were handed their title on a plate, don’t take my word for it. And as for them wanting Cris Ron- they can have him, lord knows they need him, whereas United will go on without. It’s up to United to extract as much money out of this situation as possible, and if that means benching the winker than by all means, we’ll see how up to a season’s worth of no football does his form. Sheesh. He’s going to be a cash cow for us or a fcuking moaning bench warming bitch, either way it’s all good.
Just set a price of 150million pounds, or ask for Welsley Sneidjer and Sergio Ramos with an additional 100million pounds. That will be more beneficial to us then having to see this fucker play for us half heartedly.
In todays newspaper we read Ferguson is about to make a £25m bid for under contract Berbatov. Has your manager told Spurs. If not what is the difference with what Real Madrid are doing. A case of Pot calling Kettle Black or staightforward hypocrisy. Also to the editor nice to see you practice censorship when the truth conflicts with your one eyed manc loving contributors views.
He,s good but not close to best in World the real talent is Rooney & Teves the 2 best no,. 10s in the World this from an Arsenal fan through & through
When the birds [sic:seagulls] follow the trawler: You want to show us the quotes from Fergie saying he wants to sign Berbatov? Or are you honestly trying to compare hacks writing about our potential targets with Real Madrid representatives talking about Ronaldo to the press every day?
“KingOfZamunda” – best blog commenting alias EVER. However, you have to realise that football is a business. Why would Glazer get involved otherwise?
Taron: What? Humiliating season?! We drew a few games that cost us the title – and that was with a side that people had dismissed as crap before the season even started. We messed up, and fair play that you lot came through and won, but I think you’ll find that the gooners commenting on here are a lot less biased than your so called fans. We’re only here because Scott keeps posting articles mentioning Arsenal that show up on newsnow. Why should we lie down and take your shit if your lot are too igorant to accept that Utd are just a bunch of people who play football – just like any other team? It’s only a game FFS. But if you want to play dirty how’s about recognising that the “Republik of Mancunia” is actually the county of Surrey? Put that in thy pipe and smoke it.
DT – you speak like a man of intelligence, but then lose all respect in the last sentence. Surrey? Look pal, United have glory fans for a reason. If southerners prefer to support United over teams down south… then it says a lot more about your teams.
Manchester United draw in fans from all over the place. It’s bloody ignorant to think that and I’ve always wondered why the same argument does apply to every other city with two clubs. Should all proper scousers support Everton over Liverpool? Should all proper Brummies support Birmingham City over Villa? Should all proper Londoners support West Ham over Arsenal?
So piss off with your comments about Surrey. It’s like stepping in to a time warp. 1994 was about the last time moronic comments like that were original and brought about a smile. Get a new gag.
I agree with you regarding Wright as a pundit – I think he is awful and I do not understand why the BBC continue to employ him. His ‘fan approach’ to tap into the majority of BBC viewers clearly doesn’t work as most fans that I speak to (from all clubs) do not like his style – I don’t personally think his playing career needs to come into this debate (although for the record I felt he was a fine striker).
Ronaldo is the best player in the world. To get to that level you need a certain amount of arrogance and you need your ego to be stroked. It’s evident that Ronaldo likes a piece of that from time to time and I personally do not believe he cares for who he plays for – just as long he is adored by his public. Unfortunately, like at most clubs, this doesn’t wash with United fans that want to see loyalty and commitment from their players. I do think Ronaldo will stay as Fergie will not allow him to leave whilst he is still wanted and under contract – but it leaves a bitter tastes in the mouth on Ronaldo’s part.
With regards to ‘the bigger club’ – every fan will always overate their side, no matter what has happened and currently as United are the European Champions AND the winners of their domestic league, it would be safe to say United are the bigger club. Do you need to look at history? Of course, but the format of the European Cup has changed immensely since Madrid won 5 European cups on the trot (against the mighty Stade de Reims – twice! – and in 59 Eintracht Frankfurt). Madrid are a fine football establishment, with great history and tradition but remember how they obtained the services of Di Stefano in the first place (General Franco cancelled the players registration to Barcelona so that he could sign for Madrid). Madrid also had to sell off their training ground to the government some years back (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/1355780.stm)
Anyhow – end of the day Ronaldo is a great footballer but I think he needs to start thinking about his club rather than himself – which is something that he brought into his game (greater team ethic than being so individualistic. Wright’s original piece was poorly written and his ‘fan style’ is quite basic reading – however, after all that, Ronaldo should be showing more loyalty to United.
Its a shame that ronaldo can do this to club that took him from nothing to something,I have noticed for a while that he has become so arrogant and proud,he thinks he is funny trying to bite the finger that fed him but its just sheer stupidity,it would break my heart no doubt to see him leave because he is the best around,but he has to show respect to SAF and we the fans,let him go next season and lets see what will become of him,I pray he doesnt end up like is ruud vanisteroy,heinze and most especially is former number 7 Beckham.I think ronald’s problem is that he never thought he was going to achieve such level in life,because life was so hard for him during is childhood,I see him as an opportunist blessed with God’s natural talent and now carried away by the spotting light that he never dreamt would beam on him,due to poverty,but he should be thankful,grateful nand humble to the club that brought him to limelight,he should see SAF as a father that would not tell him lies.One thing we all and the ronaldos of this world should know is that,when sucess comes our way,we walk in humilty…United for life,we will make it without him,one man is not bigger than the team and we the fans,I dont hate him and I wish him well,I hope my sons play like him,because I love him,but they should not get is kind of stupid and ungrateful character.I wish him all the best.