Erik Ten Hag is not ‘ballsy’ because he did not march Ronaldo straight out of Manchester United. He can ‘biff him off’ now though.
From must-watch to mid-table for Manchester United
‘Any serious-minded elite club who wish to match Ronaldo’s ambition of winning the Champions League, will recognise a 37-year-old on vast wages who, while still scoring plenty of goals, has made teams collectively worse in recent seasons.
‘And any serious-minded elite footballer, with ambitions of winning the Champions League or Premier League any time soon, will recognise a club which hasn’t come close to winning either trophy in almost a decade.’
Dave Kidd pulls no punches in his Ronaldo column in The Sun, so we presume this view that Ronaldo and Manchester United are both busted flushes is one he held last year when Ronaldo joined Manchester United? After all, Ronaldo ‘has made teams collectively worse in recent seasons’ and Manchester United ‘hasn’t come close to winning either trophy in almost a decade’.
Odd then that less than ten months ago, Kidd was claiming that ‘heading into the white heat of a four-horse Premier League title race, Ronaldo’s ambition remains undimmed’ and ‘this season, United will become a must-watch once again, so anyone viewing Ronaldo’s signing with cynicism is no true lover of football. It’s churlish to talk of a player being past his best when he scored 36 goals last season.’
He even wrote that ‘With Ronaldo joining an already frightening array of attacking talent, United are threatening to resemble Real Madrid in their Galactico era, when David Beckham joined Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and the original ‘fat’ Ronaldo but failed to win any trophy for three years’.
So in August last year, Ronaldo was joining a title race and Manchester United had become ‘must-watch’ but now, neither Ronaldo nor Manchester United are to be taken seriously at all and the striker’s exit is nothing more than a ‘celebrity story’. Odd that.
To underline his point, Kidd is forced to exaggerate Manchester United’s demise in quite spectacular fashion:
‘Somehow, United finished sixth – but the same points total the previous season would have left them 11th.
‘They are sinking into mid-table, in a league so wealthy that mid-table clubs can buy world-class players and pay them handsomely.’
Over the last five seasons, Manchester United have finished second, sixth, third, second and…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…