It’s too tempting to resist sometimes, the chance to return to a former club where you know how everything works, where familiar faces remain and where, if you’re really lucky, the fans already love you unconditionally. But it doesn’t always work out for the best…
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
A beautiful return in many ways, because rarely has a transfer more ruthlessly exposed the dangers of a personality cult (not a typo) over the benefits of the team.
When Ronaldo was performing as an individual in his first season back at Old Trafford – only Golden Boot sharers Salah and Son scored more Premier League goals – the team was, to use a technical term, absolute sh*t. This season, with Ronaldo sidelined and wanting out and nobody within the squad much caring either way, Erik ten Hag’s side are improving fast and certainly set to progress markedly from the Ronaldo-centric shambleteam of last season.
Ronaldo’s pathetic departure from Old Trafford after refusing to accept a demeaning bit-part role in a superb win over Tottenham is the ending he deserved and a triumph for the collective. The Athletic report that claimed Ronaldo’s departure not just from the subs’ bench but from the ground altogether went largely unnoticed by a squad celebrating its best night in ages must have been brutal for the game’s biggest ego. Hated, adored, and now sometimes ignored. Oof.
Didier Drogba (Chelsea)
It’s not so much that Drogba’s return to Chelsea via a two-year hiatus in China and Istanbul was bad – it did bring another Premier League winner’s medal after all – it’s just that it very slightly spoiled one of the great farewells. When your last action for a club before you leave is being almost single-handedly responsible for dragging them through a Champions League final against Bayern Munich on their own turf to win a first European title then that is an unimprovable ending.
He did also score only four Premier League goals in his 28 games in his return season, although Big-Game Drogba being Big-Game Drogba he did score two of those four goals against Manchester United and Tottenham.
Paul Pogba (Manchester United)
He was often perfectly good in his second six-year spell at Old Trafford but it was also just permanently exhausting. He certainly wasn’t as consistently excellent as you’d want a £90m player to be – especially one who did seem to produce said consistent excellence for the national side – but the bigger…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…