Small wonder Ronaldo behaves the way he does if this is his ‘punishment’ from Man Utd

The Ronaldo flounce against Spurs was an opportunity to deal with him once and for all, but instead he was back in the team within a week.

It’s very easy to see why Cristiano Ronaldo behaves in the way in which he does. Since he was a teenager he’s been treated like a demigod, his every whim indulged, his every financial demand met, and usually without question.

And no matter how badly he behaves, no matter how much his behaviour threatens the equilibrium of whichever squad he’s supposed to be a part of, there seem to be either no consequences whatsoever when he acts up, or consequences so slight that he might not even notice.

There will always be pushback from thousands of his slavish followers on social media, and from sympathetic parties in the media. And he will ‘get away with it’, because that’s what seems to happen when you’re as immensely rich and influential as he is, even if the evidence of our very own eyes is that, at 37 years of age, he no longer has the pace or movement to be able to thrive in the Premier League.

And so it has turned out yet again. Following his flounce in the closing minutes of the game against Spurs, when he refused to come on as a substitute with a few minutes to play and then left Old Trafford before the rest of the team got back to the dressing room, he was exiled to train on his own and wasn’t selected for the squad to travel to Chelsea.

But this didn’t last very long. In the media, certain ex-pros went out to bat for him with arguments so contorted that they stopped making much sense. And barely a week after his latest piece of egregiously self-centred tantrumming, he was first back training with the rest of the players, then in the squad for United’s home Europa League game against Sheriff Tiraspol, then in the first XI for this game, and then scored the final goal in a 3-0 win which keeps the team in the chase to snatch top place in the group from leaders Real Sociedad in the final round of fixtures.

That Erik ten Hag should have made this decision is in a sense understandable. Manchester United remain light on attacking players in their squad, and the rigours of the modern game require squad rotation. If he’s fit and he’s available, giving him a run out in the starting XI in a match of relatively little consequence – United were already through to the knockout stages of the Europa League before this game – then no harm done. The player’s ego gets a little boost, Ten Hag gets to…