After an initial wave of a few weeks with Cristiano Ronaldo associated with the best clubs in European football, the final wave with Champions League teams without the same aspirations in terms of sport is concerned. A few days before the closing of the market, the forward’s situation is one of the key points still to be resolved in this transfer window -and which could end in a simpler “non-solution” of staying at Manchester United, a team with He has one more year of contract and an option. Nevertheless, there has been a paradigm shift. In the formation of English, in the general perception. And if these days last year the number 7 chose between Red Devils and Manchester City, today lost choice option.
What changed then between 2021, when Jorge Mendes arrived in Turin in the last market week, told Juventus that Ronaldo was going to leave and then there was a duel between Manchester clubs, and 2022, with the player’s agent. trying multiple ports without finding a window of opportunity? The reasons that explain the failure of the entrepreneur in the multiple attempts made help to understand what happened.
Example 1, the chelsea Todd Boehly, the new owner of the Londoners after the departure of Roman Abramovich, met with Jorge Mendes at the beginning of the blues and, later, he would have had the authorization of Richard Arnold, general manager of Manchester United, to negotiate the striker’s contract with the agent. For him, it was worth the financial effort, even from a commercial and marketing perspective that is always present in the business thinking of large North American investors. Problem? Thomas Tuchel’s sports options for the squad. “The possibility of signing a striker is not ruled out, but it is not a priority at the moment. The priority is defense, it’s no secret. From there we will see what is possible, ”he said, and the option for the attack, but more mobile: Raheem Sterling arrived.
example 2, bayern. With the departure of Robert Lewandowski, which was not confirmed but everyone knew it would be a reality, the Bavarians began to turn their attention to Sadio Mané in what would be a supposed change in the game model without disrupting the usual tactical system but admitted that he hired Ronaldo. “We discussed the matter. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be doing our job. Personally, I think he is one of the best footballers to ever walk the planet, but we have come to the conclusion that, despite all our appreciation, he would not fit our philosophy in the current situation.” “You have to be able to afford it “It’s not new, it involves a lot of money. I think there are many clubs that would like to have him. All the clubs know that he is a great player, who would score many goals and sell many shirts, but he also brings additional pressure,” he added. coach Julian Nagelsmann most recently.
example 3, PSG In this case, there were no “denials” or explanations about the lack of interest of the French in hiring the Portuguese international, but Jorge Mendes’ conversation with Luís Campos, soccer adviser and sports director of President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, left everything uncovered unavailability table: there is no financial slack regarding the lack of salary taking into account the fair play and the millionaire renovation of Kylian Mbappé, the bet is on young values to renew the squad and Hugo Ekitike was chosen in the offensive plan to “grow” this season. In other words, if it is true that one day Al-Khelaïfi admitted the dream of bringing Ronaldo and Messi together, the context was lost in time.
example 4, AC Milan and Inter. When the news about Ronaldo and a possible exit began to be scarce, the transalpine press reported that Jorge Mendes had made an attempt with the two champion clubs in recent seasons to get the player. In these cases, the sporting aspect of the refusal was not properly addressed, but rather the economic burdens that the large operation would entail: for having closed the activity in Italy after leaving Turin last summer, thus losing what could still benefit the level of tax burden, the forward would cost around 45 million euros a year to receive in net terms what he has in England.
There was talk of more clubs, including the millionaire proposal that came from Saudi Arabia that would break all records in terms of prizes and salaries but had no interest in the competitive plan. Barcelona, which fostered the passion of Bernardo Silva without making a single concrete proposal to Manchester City and which also in relation to Ronaldo saw Joan Laporta position himself but only for the starters. Real Madrid, with Florentino Pérez refusing to return after leaving. the atl. Madrid, which could be a desirable solution, but which was diluted by the permanence of Griezmann and Morata amid the protests of the fans at the news. The first European line was closed.
it was later in a second wave that other clubs associated with the captain of the national team began to appear. B. Dortmund, who are even looking for another striker after Sebastian Haller’s misfortune with a malignant tumor that will keep him off the pitch for a few months. Marseille, who came to publicly deny the hypothesis despite never having been a real option for Ronaldo. Napoli, the last opportunity that he reopened this week but with many doubts in the mix to make the hiring plan viable in practical terms (and there was also talk of an approach to AC Milan).
Summary? Ronaldo did not have a place in the main clubs, either because there were other sports priorities, or because of the economic limitations of fitting his salary into the salary sheet, or because of the impossibility of having a return that was not the direct impact on marketing and commercial. No one spoke exactly about the number of goals he scores and what he brings to the team but, unlike last year, this is no longer enough. For this reason, the next five days will be decisive for Ronaldo and for what he expects at this stage of his career.
The situation at Manchester United is not the best right now. With a previous point: from the beginning, either in the justification for the absence on the return to work and on the tour of Asia and Australia, or in the explanation of his departure from the club this summer, the player always alleged “personal reasons” that were accepted and even reiterated by those responsible for the club, and this is a reality, despite the fact that there was a great focus on the issue of having a sports project that would allow him to win titles and play for 20 consecutive seasons. in the champions league. So, what does Ronaldo represent today at the club, in an image that has been eroding due to the constant news of the desire to leave that at a given moment the Red Devils they seemed to assume with a twist of the word that unofficially it already admitted a way out.
The images of the team’s warm-up in the last game against Liverpool, those images that don’t “happen” but are accompanied by thousands of people in the stands who take out their phones and make videos that soon circulate half the world through social networks, showed a CR7 committed to the team. Doing recreational exercises with the ball that at one point reminded Diego Maradona of warming up at Napoli in the late 1980s, but also cheering on all his teammates individually before an important game, especially because of the win against Brentford. More: Casemiro, the latest signing, admitted that his former teammate at Real has been a great help. The striker was a substitute, He was not the first to enter and played four more minutes in added time.
Does this mean that it will always be like this in case of permanence? No. There are games and games, each game has its strategy, Ronaldo was still the element most capable of making the difference when it came to scoring goals. However, Erik ten Hag’s idea for this new Manchester United ended up being reinforced even because of the team’s own performance against Liverpool: the design of a 4x3x3 with Casemiro in front to build Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes and three more mobile strikers who are capable of quickly making high-pressure areas to not let the rival go or build (then there are also moments of downloading lines to explore transitions but already having an advantage). So at the same time, Dutch understands that the defense is less exposed to the many weaknesses it still shows.
All things considered, and once again if he stays at Old Trafford, Ronaldo will start a number of games, but if Ten Hag sticks to the same idea for the more relevant and competitive challenges, he won’t appear as first choice in bigger games like derby with Liverpool, while playing for the first time in the Europa League. Coming out, and at this stage where the top 5 options seem to be exhausted, the natural option on the table is Sporting. Once again, as the Observer had commented before, the club does not comment on the possibility in official terms, nor does it open or close the door because any decision will always have to come from the player himself, who, through his agent, knows how far they could go. get the lions at the salary level and also alternative ways to minimize the differences as much as possible. Ronaldo’s idea, in the medium term, was to finish his career at Alvalade; everything that he has changed in the last year, in which he scored 24 goals in 38 games, makes that possibility at least exists in the short term.
Source: Observadora
