Ronaldo: an early test of Chelsea’s rebuild while allowing Man United to start theirs

The future of Cristiano Ronaldo is now going to dominate the remainder of Manchester United’s summer, but could he also be a huge factor at Chelsea?

For United, Ronaldo’s declaration that he wishes to leave the club in pursuit of Champions League football is a kick in the teeth but one that could come with a pretty significant upside. The dilemma for Ralf Rangnick – and one that would also have been Erik ten Hag’s to solve – was that he couldn’t really make the side work with Ronaldo in it but couldn’t afford to risk not picking him.

Because despite the obvious waning of his powers he still delivered in his individual numbers. He still scored 18 Premier League goals – at least eight more than any of his team-mates and fewer than only three other players in the entire league despite the team’s struggles. There were still times – against Atalanta, against Norwich, against Tottenham – when the old Ronaldo was there, a man capable of bending entire matches to his will and to score decisive late goals. Yet the team overall went undeniably, demonstrably and in the end dramatically backwards. Not only did United collapse from second – five points clear of Liverpool! – to a distant sixth, they scored fewer goals in 2021/22 as well.

Clearly, it would be remiss to pin all the blame for that on Ronaldo. But at the very, very least it is clear that his return created problems that his flashes of game-changing brilliance could not cover and that re-signing him for £20m and half-a-million quid a week has been a costly failure.

The timing of his declaration is not ideal for United, with the idea that he has been put off by the lack of transfer activity undone by his own stated reasons for wanting out. If it really is Champions League football he wants, then he could have told United this in May – or March, really – and given time for a concerted effort to source a replacement, while potential replacements would also have known they weren’t just coming in to play second fiddle to the Ronaldo Show. (And that’s another striking thing about it all; even a club of United’s size and stature was reduced to Ronaldo FC by the noise that surrounds an otherworldly superstar even in decline.)

So yes, the timing isn’t great. But while United can decide to play hardball, should they really stand in Ronaldo’s way? This isn’t like Spurs holding on to Harry Kane against his will last summer. There might even be a sense of relief from some…