Should Man United let Cristiano Ronaldo go now that he is already a minor player at Old Trafford?

Life has come full for Cristiano Ronaldo in Manchester United, and he has now become the team’s beacon of hope for a successful future. It’s time for United to let him go because the positive dividend on the pitch will, sooner or later, outweigh the financial costs of allowing him to leave Old Trafford for free this week.

Ronaldo’s goalscoring tally last season – 24 in 38 appearances – doesn’t count as United sit sixth in the Premier League and fail to win a trophy, but a bad season has It would have been much worse without the 37-year-old’s contributions. in a campaign that saw the team play under three managers and go from one crisis to another.

However, football moves quickly, and as he nears his first anniversary back to United from JuventusRonaldo has become the man of yesterday.

The debate over whether he was United’s savior last season, or the lightning rod for everything that happened, will flare up after his second stint at the club. However, with only 4 games under Erik ten Hag’s reign as a coach, it is clear that Ronaldo is now a somewhat small player, with no obvious role but a careless role on the bench. .

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United have yet to prove they can live without Ronaldo’s goal – with Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Anthony Elanga and Anthony Martial still to show consistency extending up front. The signing of 95 million euros of Antony from Ajax this week should help strengthen Ten Hag’s options, but nonetheless, Ronaldo remains the only striker on the team that can truly be described as a regular goalscorer.

There is a bigger picture that Ten Hag and United must now examine, and it cannot include Ronaldo and his goals. Back in 2006, United manager at the time Sir Alex Ferguson made the bold decision when striker Ruud van Nistelrooy moved to the United States. Real Madridin spite of Netherlands international brings incredible stability with 150 goals in 219 appearances for the club.

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It was a controversial move by Ferguson, but he later revealed that he punished Van Nistelrooy’s departure because the player had become a dressing-room presence and especially stifled his development. development of a young teammate: Ronaldo.

“Ruud has already started talking to [coach] Carlos Queiroz on Ronaldo,” Ferguson wrote in his autobiography. There were a few changes during his final season with us, but mainly Van Nistelrooy with Ronaldo. “

Sixteen years on, there are parallels between Van Nistelrooy’s departure and the situation United are currently facing with Ronaldo. While there is no question mark about Ronaldo’s professionalism and fitness, sources have told ESPN over a period of several months that he has become a divisive figure on the team. His claim to the highest standards on the training ground should not be criticized, but sources have said that Ronaldo has been unable to accept that the United team he joined is a different world from his own. He’s gone, both in terms of the size of the team. the lineup and the personalities in it.

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Gab Marcotti and Rob Dawson update on Cristiano Ronaldo’s future after he was left on the bench in Man United’s win over Liverpool.

In short, he expects people who like Harry Maguire and Rashford to perform as Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney and do not compensate for their obvious shortcomings. When Ronaldo’s desire to leave United was made public in July, a source told ESPN that the news was greeted with joy by the majority of his teammates and that Ronaldo had become a “pain in his life”. …”.

Via missed the team’s last season Touring Thailand and Australia for “personal reasons”, Ronaldo was on the other side of the world when Ten Hag began working on his new squad, trying to create a sense of unity that had been absent there. previous season. As soon as Ronaldo returned to action, he angered his new manager by leaving Old Trafford after half-time of a pre-season friendly Rayo Vallecano.

Then there was the bad performance in the previous 4-0 loss Brentford, when Ronaldo was to blame like the rest of his teammates for the loss. It was his only appearance under Ten Hag – he played the full 90 minutes – and has so far registered only 153 minutes, and without a goal, in four games this season.

Hailed as a hero back just 12 months ago, Ronaldo is now a source of friction in the dressing room and fails to give the new manager a positive football reason to pick him in the starting XI. broadcast. So why is he still at Old Trafford?

Basically, United simply couldn’t find a club to take him away. While the public location has been Ronaldo is not available for transferSources told ESPN that they have been working on finding a club and leaving the Premier League would suit both parties. However, with a year to run on a £500,000-a-week deal, the lack of interest in a player who turns 38 in February is not surprising, despite Napoli and his former side. It’s Sporting CP. the latest one is linked with a movable loan.

If Ronaldo were a less expensive proposition, clubs would certainly emerge to sign him, so United now have a big decision to make.

In recent years, Arsenal financially affected by the cancellation of the contract with Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – along with a host of others – to accelerate Mikel Arteta’s rebuilding work at the Emirates, and with the Gunners currently at the top of the Premier League with an exciting young team, those decisions are starting to come to an end. fruit.

By reaching an agreement with Ronaldo, United will give Ten Hag a similar opportunity to clear the air and push his own agenda. The alternative would be to keep him until the end of his contract and hope that the problems go away, but that would likely be an even more costly gamble.

From a football perspective, United can only make one decision.