We finally got the clarification we were looking for on Ronaldo’s future last week, following a summer of comments of intent from Real Madrid and Manchester United, as well as vague messages from the player. He is staying.
Now, there’s plenty of time to reflect on our opinions of Ronaldo over the coming season. We’ve spent the past couple of months brewing with frustration, just wanting to know one way or the other what was going to happen. The anger and resentment fans have been feeling over being left out in the dark doesn’t just disappear because Ronaldo says he wants to stick around, however, now that we know he is definitely staying, it doesn’t hurt to see things from his point of view, whether we agree with him or not.
When reading over Ronaldo’s interview with Publico, I was drawn in when he was talking about his ‘dream’. His most overused words in the summer certainly have been his ‘dream’ and what ‘God knows’. So, can we forgive Ronaldo for his dream?
Since Ronaldo joined us in the summer of 2003, we have known the likelihood was he would one day leave us for Spain, whether that be Real Madrid or Barcelona if he fulfilled his potential, or a more average Spanish side if he didn’t. Taking in to consideration his Iberian roots, it just makes sense.
In the interview last week, Ronaldo was asked how he felt about the angry reaction he might receive from the fans when he returns. Whilst saying he hoped he wasn’t booed by us, he was keen to explain his behaviour over the summer.
“People have to understand one thing: at the age of eighteen I arrived at a dream club like Manchester United,” he said. “It was a dream come true. But, even at that moment, I was thinking about playing in England for some years and then going to play in Spain. Even at that time I was thinking that way, and I always gave 100% everything.”
Now, just imagine for a moment you’re a young up-and-coming footballer. Imagine you make your break to the big time with Real Madrid. The fans love you, you are shit hot on the pitch, you can get all the birds you want, meaning pretty much, your life is perfect. Then you score 42 goals in 47 games one season, with Real Madrid winning La Liga, as well as scoring their only goal in the European Cup final against Villarreal. You lift the trophy and all the (bitter) fans of other clubs in Spain claim that you are the sole reason for Real Madrid’s success. Most people are claiming you’re actually the best player in the World.
You have soaked up every ounce of the limelight and the praise, you love playing in front of the thousands of adoring fans at the Bernabeu, you’ve got the pictures of you lifting the European Cup framed and above the mantelpiece at your mam’s in Manchester, but there’s this nagging feeling. You want to be a Manchester United player. When you first started kicking the ball around as a young lad, scoring goals between the two jumpers put down as posts on the field, you were doing it imagining you were celebrating in front of the Stretford End.
So, on a daily basis, you hear Manchester United players and representatives saying how great you are and how they want you to come and play for United. Sometimes, they even say that it would be an honour if you went to play for them. Holy fucking shit, are you dreaming? United would be honoured if you were paid ridiculous sums of money to play football for them.
Now, what do you do? You don’t want to piss Real Madrid off, because they’ve been pretty decent to you over the past few years, but you also don’t want United to think you don’t want to know. Your boss goes on holiday and you don’t really know what’s going on. Would it be unreasonable to admit to the press that you dream of playing for United, but that you’ll still be happy and motivated to play for Real Madrid?
“Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do,” continued Ronaldo. “I said exactly what I thought: I have a dream of playing at Real and I thought it was time to move on. People can’t be upset about me fulfilling a childhood dream.”
United fans wanted to know one way or the other, was he leaving or was he staying, but quite simply, Ronaldo didn’t have an answer. He had limited options.
1. Stay completely quiet on the matter, revealing nothing to the press. However, this wouldn’t have satisfied us, because we wanted to know what was going on.
2. Categorically state that he wanted to play for Real Madrid next season and do whatever he could to ensure that happened. However, this isn’t what he wanted. He one day wanted to play in Real, but wasn’t hell-bent on leaving this summer.
3. Categorically state that he wanted to stay at United next season and Real Madrid should stop wasting their time. However, whilst the club put on a brave face with the media, claiming the player was not for sale, Ronaldo did not know what United’s intentions were. Don’t forget, David Beckham also ‘wasn’t for sale’ in the weeks leading up to his departure to Real!
So what did Ronaldo do instead? He spoke of what he one day dreamed of achieving, whilst not committing himself too strongly either way. As soon as he was able to resolve the situation with the club he had a contract with, he came out and confirmed that he was staying.
Whilst I have been frustrated with this whole saga, mainly because it has taken attention away from the praise we deserved as a club following last season, to get upset with Ronaldo following the events of the summer is fairly naive. We have been told since day one that he would one day leave us for Spain, but how did we envisage that happening?
If when Ronaldo was 18-years-old someone told me in 5 years time we would have to sell him, but only after he scored 42 goals in a season, including one in the European Cup final, which we would go on to win, I would bite their hand off. Wouldn’t we all? However, now we’re in that situation, we want more and more from him. That is fair enough and I’m not being critical of fans who are angry with Ronaldo, but I do have a sense that we should be grateful for what we’ve got, things which Ronaldo helped us achieve.
I am also grateful for Ronaldo’s honesty. We haven’t been duped like some fans have by their idols. Ronaldo confessions this summer of it being his dream to play for Real Madrid shouldn’t have come as a surprise to us.
Now, this isn’t me kissing Ronaldo’s arse or trying to gloss over my feelings of frustration of the summer. He really brought to life how playing for the club we love isn’t as good as it gets for him, and whilst we may have always been aware of that, we haven’t been forced to recognise it in the way we were this summer. The players we love are typically the players who love playing for United and now Ronaldo has made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t love our club in the way we want him to, then it does bring about distance between him and the fans. We will never be able to have the relationship with him that we have with the likes of Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who weren’t brought up loving United, but who ended up falling head over heels for it. I have no doubt that unlike last season, where Ronaldo was given the majority of our attention, it’ll be players like Rooney, Tevez and Anderson who get the majority of our songs.
However, once you can accept Ronaldo for what he is, then you can resolve your feelings of frustration and anger. Let’s take one more year of Ronaldo, after being victorious in our battle against Real Madrid, hoping he will score as many goals as possible and help us win as many trophies as we can, then say goodbye.
“I’ll be playing at Manchester United with my heart and soul,” said Ronaldo. “I will fight and honour the shirt with the same desire and dedication as I always have.”
That is all I expect him to do.
True true Scott… the truth is Ronaldo didn’t do anything wrong this summer and even acted more professionally than most other athletes out there. What did he even do wrong this summer?
From his interview and Fergie’s statements, it is obvious Ronaldo wanted to go to Real madrid and Real did attempt to sign him. At this point Ronaldo had not conversed with Fergie yet, and his mind was still set on going to Madrid. If he came out then and publicly declared his interest in moving to Real Madrid, would that not been the equivalent of handing in a transfer request?
He said he thought the money Real offered to pay United was good enough compensation to let him leave as he felt he had won everything here, plus he wanted a new challenge and to be closer to his family, but had he not won the Champions league with us, he wouldn’t have considered it. However, United were still refusing and he was hoping both parties would come to an agreement, but United still said NO. if he had come out then saying he wanted to join Real Madrid, would that not have been an insult to the club, disrespecting his contract and the club’s heirarchy and Fergie in the process?
I believe his silence in the whole saga was justified, as any comment ‘directly’ stating he wanted to join Real madrid would have put United and Fergie in a very tricky position and I’m sure he had more respect for us than that; that is why he wanted everything handled behind the scenes and without Real having an upperhand.
And to prove this guy is more of a man/professional than most other players out there, as soon as he met with Fergie and the decision was made for him to remain in United, he gave an interview, explaining everything and apologising to everyone, even taking the blame for the press’s crazed, obsessive speculation/disregard for our double.
This lad deserves so much more respect than he gets, he is a true professional and the reason most people ‘envy’ him is because he is very confident person, especially in the skills he possesses and is not afraid to let the world know it. When the other fans and tabloids do it, I can understand it’s because of envy, but I reckon ManUtd fans should not be swayed by the media and actually look at this objectively, what has he done wrong this summer? Is it trying to materialise a dream of playing for real madrid and gettin closer to his family(with his father deceased) or is it keeping quiet about the whole situation while negotiations were held as a sign of respect towards ManUtd and Fergie?
What did Ferguson say? He expects a long stay out of Ronaldo now.. The more time a player spends with the club, the longer they want to stay want to spend with it… extending Ronaldo’s contract… a new focused animal…
Words Fergie wouldn’t say unless he truly believed in them. Ronaldo also said if possible, he would always want to have Fergie by his side and that we would never leave without our blessing.
This all suggests to me that “only God knows the future” LOL
If I had the talent to play football I would have made it written in every contract that if United came in for me they had to let me speak to the club. I would have made sure that whatever club I was at got a fair price, but there would be a contractual allowance for me to go to United, because that’s my dream.
I don’t blame Ronaldo for the summer mess. Why say you are staying at a club when you don’t know? The kid has been honest with us without really giving us any concretes. The trouble I’ve had with this whole summer is Madrid’s angle with everything. They haven’t let it drop once, and with making sure everyone is talking about it all then that means everyone wants to hunt down Ronaldo for his quotes (United stayed completely silent). We heard more from Cristiano than we would have if Madrid hadn’t have done their transfer through the papers.
I’ve put forward that scenario all Summer, I understood his ‘dreams’.
I’m not angry with him, I’m just upset that we haven’t received the attention as a team for our successes because this has overshadowed it all!
Well, when you put it like that… it makes perfect sense!
yeah scott, sometimes we the fans forget the the people wearing the great united jerseys are human as well, we wanted ronaldo to remain so badly because he was a great player for us this season. i also looked at it in the opposite way… the young boys in the academy who have dreams of playing for the first team but a let go because they cant make the cut, we deny them that dream, but we want to deny ron his move to madrid, it must hav been hard on him as well. once again thnx scott atleast know i can do wat i do best..cheer the reds on
So, when does SAF reveal that CR7 has now re=committed to UTD for a multi-mega deal in partnership with Nike who want him to “the face” of their footie products ?
Sure, Ronaldo signed a five-year contract with UTD but, as we all know, these contracts are notoriously flexible and also jeopardised by the EuroCourt rulings that let players buy their way out of them. While SAF held a short-term trump it can only be turned into a long-term one with the willing acquiescence of Ronaldo. And that will take a new contract, with iron-clad guarantees of length and buy-out provisions. To do this, UTD will need to vastly sweeten the pot and that, I believe, is why the rumours about the Nike tie-in are so cogent.
About the summer-long kerfuffle: “only God knows”. Ronaldo played his hand very well but he was up against a much-superior opponent in the auld Govan Guv’nor. Fergy knows when to hold ‘em and he also knows when to fold ‘em. Ronaldo got a lesson this summer in man-management.
What surprised me most about his shit-eating interview that was translated this week is that, on the one hand, he was rather meek in accepting blame for the upset he caused while, on the other hand, he was very sensible in saying that he was a straight-shooter. It was a classic piece of PR. But I have to wonder if it really was an “interview” or if it was a script since it was a really clever way to have grasped the nettle to effectively end the story. Ronaldo also indirectly heaped a huge amount of scorn on Real Madrid’s claims that they were only by-standers in this affair – it is perfectly clear that they had arranged personal terms with him/his agent but knew that they had a tough nut to crack in SAF. I believe that this is called “tapping up in reverse”.
At least ronny hasn’t disrespected his manager like Barry at Villa, or held his club to ransom like Adebyor and Fat Frank, though to be fair the latter is probably doing it for Pat.
The saga is not over yet, in the sense that the fans have to get behind Ronaldo and let him know how much we appreciate him. All booing him is going to do is send him into the arms of Madrid who have unsettled him and are waiting for him. I hope those bullshit stories bour Real suing him turn out to be true, but I doubt it cos they don’t want to damage any potential future transfer.
Remember Steve Gerrard kissed the badge on his chest then put in a transfer request. Scousers seem to forget that while they cheer him. All Ronaldo did was stay quiet.
All in all, if you think about it, ronaldo story will be forgot for at least1 year,as for the double, don’t forget about it, massive acheivement, lets do it again this year and make history,then ronaldo story will be long forgot about…
Winning trophies makes history, papers sell storys.
Watch tevez, nani, anderson,and rooney shine this year..
Champions Champions Champions.
J (stretford red)
“Then you score 42 goals in 47 games one season, with Real Madrid winning La Liga, as well as scoring their only goal in the European Cup final against Villarreal”.
Villareal, the Rent Boys of Spain. Piss funny.
Ronaldo looked very pally with the lads not playing yesterday. As long as he continues to bang them in, set them up, but defenders on their arses, i’ll be happy.
I’d rather we keep good players than lose ‘em. SAF knows when it’s time for certain types of players to leave for pastures new (Ince, Hughes, Ruud, Becks & Keano), and he certainly didn’t want Ronaldo to go. It’s not often he’s wrong (lets forget Klebfoot & the Djemba twins).
Great article scott….
Now hurry up and get fit Ronnie and start scoring some fucking goals…..
fantastic article.
This is a rubbish article. You say ‘i’m grateful for Ronaldo’s honesty’.You have a short memory. Remember that almost immediately after CL final what should have been our clubs greatest celebrations since 99 turned into a will he won’t he saga. He was not honest, he used the media to try and get a transfer- we were subjected to a month long morning headline on sky sports news of ‘cristiano ronaldo will make a decision within the next two weeks’. Personally, I will never like him again and thats not because he wants to go to Madrid. It’s because of the slimey way he went about it- hes always trying to steal the glory, hes arrogant, self obsessed and he won’t have longevity in his career because he’s uneducated.
That is cak vanessa.
The slimey party involved this summer was Real madrid, doing their utmost to unsettle Ronaldo and spreading bull through their crappy newspapers as they do. It was RM using the media not Ronaldo. He was getting battered for months about what is he going to do. He never said ‘I’m leaving’. He didn’t know what was going to happen so what should he say?
He said straight after the European cup that he was staying. After that he never said he was going. He just didn’t say he wasn’t. if RM had been able to negotiate a deal then maybe he would have gone. He said it was his dream to one day play for RM which is fair enough, and understandable. It’s close to home. it is the club he dreamed of before he started on his path to glory with Man U, and it is also his mum’s dream to see her son play for RM.
Unfortunately for RM they tried to do it in a low way which backfired on them.
I suspect that even Ronaldo must be able to see that compared to Man U Real Madrid is an unstable place to be. If he stays he can become part of Man U history (he has already started) and if he goes whilst still in his prime he *might* be able to do the same at Real (his dream club).
I won’t begrudge him if he goes one day. He has brought a lot to Man U already (and will bring in a big transfer fee if he goes). You can’t complain really.
He is arrogant etc. but that is part of what makes him the player he is. An unarrogant player would not try some of the things he does.
I certainly think he will still be giving 100% for us this year and beyond if he stays, and I’ll be backing him for one. I hope he gets a good reception from the fans. let’s be honest. the start we have had shows that we need him in the team (more than I thought actually)