Ronaldo is King, there’s no doubt about it and whatever Erik Ten Hag does, winning or losing a match that is or banning Ronaldo and punishing the latter for not wanting to learn to play football the Ten Hag way, the conversation will always be about Ronaldo.
That is unfortunate for the prestigious club and it shows how down and shallow the Reds of Manchester have fallen.
And it is mostly the rebellious players in their days, like Roy Keane, who are not happy with Ten Hag’s handling of the 37-year-old star and the ‘reduction’ of his role at Man Utd.
Keane had a big argument with former colleague Gary Neville on the situation at Man Utd and Ronaldo.
While Neville showed he is the type of player who would gladly follow the orders of the coach, keane was not a follower and the club had a lot of issues with him. However, coach Sir Alex Fergusson allowed Keane to continue to play for United and this was a great decision because with him, the club became bigger than what it was.
Nevertheless, Keane defended the Portuguese star and attacked Hag for his obvious mishandling of the situation that has led to Ronaldo fuming and leaving the match against Tottenham Hotspurs.
What coaches normally do in such situations, Keane shows, is fine the player and let things cool but when Ten Hag banned Ronaldo for one match, it does not show leadership. It shows uncertainty.
Now, let’s dip into what Keane and Neville said to each other on the Ronaldo affair. And Roy Keane was not prepared to give in to Neville.
Keane kept telling Neville that there were other players who did worse than Ronaldo at Man Utd and Neville, like the absolute follower, responded by answering they were all punished.
Keane then says Ronaldo should have been fined too.
Neville put a question to Keane, saying: “Do you not think Cristiano Ronaldo should be punished this week?”
Keane was firm in his response, making it clear that he felt Ronaldo should be fined for his actions, saying: “Dead right. You’re saying he can’t deal with being sub. He was the top goalscorer [last season].”
Being blunt, referencing Ronaldo’s struggles to dealing with being a substitute, Neville said: “He can’t.” Meaning that Cristiano is being cocky and cannot accept being a sub.
Keane showed more support for the Portuguese footballer by saying: “They played Man City a few weeks ago and it could’ve been 16 [goals they conceded]. The manager says, ‘I’m not bringing him on’ because he didn’t want to disrespect Ronaldo. He goes to Everton a week later, comes on, scores a goal. Starts against Newcastle…”
Neville tried to turn the heat on in support of Ten Hag.
“Roy, there’s not many Manchester United fans who would have Cristiano in the starting XI.”
Keane could not be bothered with that statement from Neville. He showed it in the most noisy maner.
“I couldn’t care less what fans think. I couldn’t care less. A lot of the fans haven’t got a clue what’s going on.”
That’s who Roy Keane is off the filed and on the field. Without Keane, Utd could still be licking the bottom of the trophies they won in the past. Thus, to say that a player cannot be bigger than the club could be totally wrong.
The future for the superstar is at stake, it appears that there is a strong support system towards the Portuguese player regardless of Ten Hag’s apparent efforts to shun him down.
What will happen next? We would have to wait and see.
More stories relating to Cristiano Ronaldo can be found here.