At the beginning, I must say that Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent behaviour is totally unacceptable. Showing respect to your team-mates, your manager and your club’s supporters are amongst the fundamentals in football and to refuse to come on as a substitute, as Erik ten Hag has confirmed, and retreat to the dressing-room with a game still in progress takes a flamethrower to one of the primary dressing-room codes.
In a team game, where the basic principle is that you’re all in it together win or lose, Such a display of selfishness, petulance is desperately unprofessional and it’s right that Ronaldo should be disciplined by Manchester UnitedIt was because of it. His was a terrible example to set and it’s a shame that instead of reflecting on their best performance of the season against Tottenham HotspurTen Hag is forced to talk about someone that only figures on the periphery.
Having said all that, I do think it’s important to examine the nuances of Ronaldo’s situation and to try and look at it from his perspective, in terms of who and what he is and what he’s been through. He’s one of the biggest names the game has ever seen, a marvel for two decades, always the first name on the team-sheet and the big-stage player who can reliably be called upon as a saviour, to win the game.
His numbers are still impressive, even in the context Manchester United. He carried Manchester United last season, scoring 24 goals in 38 matches for a team that was poor by their standards. Can he finish? He can, obviously. Is he in good shape? Absolutely, he’s a physical specimen. He could play for 90 minutes. Yeah, he could, and I don’t have any doubt that he would still get into a majority of Premier League sides.
And so I understand Ronaldo’s anger and frustration, because being the best It is all he’s known. He’s been the main man, the focal point, the trophy-laden superstar, one of the best players in the world, if not the best, and now for the first time in his career he has a manager telling him he’s no longer integral, that he can’t do something, instead of looking to him to make the impossible seem routine.
I get that his conduct looks bad – and it is bad – but the context in Ronaldo’s case is how unprecedented it must feel to be normal. It must feel strange to be on the same world as everyone else when you set high standards for performance. When you’re a force of nature and your force is blocked.
We shouldn’t forget, too, that the World Cup will be high on Ronaldo’s personal agenda and that, as usual, PortugalExpecting him to produce is unrealistic. He needs to be able to play and be creative. It must be difficult to look at the future and yet know deep down that even in different circumstances, you would still be hitting the goals. I don’t condone the way he’s acted, but I do think there’s some mitigation.
Why is he being overlooked? Because he simply can’t press in the way Ten Hag wants. He came on against EvertonRonaldo proved that his ability to run in behind the goalkeeper and score the winning goal showed him that his instincts and abilities are unimpaired. But, at elite clubs, modern game managers work at 100mph. It is a high-energy environment and you must have 11 players who are fit to defend the ball.
Ronaldo poses for Tottenham Hotspur against Old Trafford Wednesday night (Photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images).
It’s not just Manchester United. It’s Manchester City, Liverpool, Spurs, ArsenalAnd ChelseaThey all press from the front, and they all play systems that require every person to be there. It’s press, press, press. Four months shy of his 38th birthday, Ronaldo can’t be that player any more. I don’t care who you are or how well you look after yourself, it’s impossible at that age. You can’t beat time.
This moment can be very hard for elite athletes to accept. I’m not putting myself in Ronaldo’s bracket, but I have experience of playing at the top level while confronting my own mortality. No one loves football more than I do. I never missed training and I was never late, but it’s horrible, really horrible, wanting to do something and being urged to do it by your brain, while realising that your body can’t get there any more.
I was not included in the Newcastle UnitedRuud Gullit as the team in the infamous derby against SunderlandAll those years ago. Ruud, looking over his shoulder at Duncan Ferguson in the dugout and saying to us to warm up as we were on our way to defeat, was my memory. ‘Oh, so now you want me’, I thought. I would have loved to tell him to fuck off, but as hard as it is, you’ve got to bite your lip, try and change the game, be as professional as possible and address everything else afterwards.
Shearer left on the bench for the match against Sunderland in August 1999 (Photo: NCJ Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
A few seasons later, Sir Bobby Robson didn’t pick me for an away fixture at Aston Villa and it was the same thing, a huge dent to the ego when you’ve been the main guy for so long. There’s a disconnect between knowing you can’t quite do everything you used to, that you might have lost half a yard of pace, and actually accepting it, because you still have the same hunger and attitude and mentality. It must be harder when you’re a phenomenon like Ronaldo.
You also know – or should do – that people will be looking at your response, inside and outside of the dressing-room. Old Trafford was packed with 74,000 people against Spurs. How many people were Ronaldo responsible for? Nobody wants to see him behave like that, stropping down the touchline, and that’s where we have to flip this back to the start. His reaction was poor, and it wasn’t the first time. He should have done more.
It is an extremely delicate situation for Ten Hag, but the Dutchman has to be commended for the way he’s handled it. Ronaldo is an exceptional, one-off player, who has great influence and sway. But a manager must make sure that the team comes first. I said during my television co-commentary for the Spurs match that in Ronaldo’s absence Bruno FernandesTaking on greater responsibility Marcus Rashford enjoyed more freedom. They were more free without him. Is it a coincidence?
Ten Hag’s balance is to keep discipline, but not end relationships or risk poisoning the dressing-room. He appears to be on the right track from the outside. He has been measured but firm in what he’s said publicly.
The truth is that Manchester United shouldn’t have signed Ronaldo in the first place. It always looked like a reactive move, an attempt to ensure that an iconic player from their past didn’t end up at City, their great rivals. How true that is and how keenly City really wanted him, I guess we’ll never know, but it certainly wasn’t done with team-building or strategy in mind, however much it brought a short-team lift to morale.
Turn back the clock and it’s interesting to consider what might have happened if Ronaldo had ended up at City. He wouldn’t have played every game there either, I know that much. At an elite, winning team, it would have been easier for Pep Guardiola to leave him out and I suspect Ronaldo’s attitude would have been better because he would still be at a club challenging at the top and playing his part there.
Instead, what we have witnessed is a slow shrinking and the ticking time. Sad.
(Top photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images
