Even if he was scoring 30+ a season we need to plan ahead regardless. He’s 37 and not the player he once was. Keeping him just for the sake of keeping him would be a mistake imo. Free the wage bill up for new signings.
i hate how we keep talking about Ronaldo! we havent won in a decade ffs! he can stay or go i couldnt give less f. We need to be a team with or without CR7
I agree that Ronaldo doesn't have the capacity he used to have. But a player's performance heavily depends on other players as well....and our others players are so shit that it makes a player like Ronaldo look weak as well....
At the start of the season, the fans believed (implausibly) that they had the best squad besides City, and were ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. This was always a kind of magical thinking which refused to allow for the fact Liverpool were destroyed by injuries and Chelsea were in a half-way house. The view even massively underrated how good City are - there was no way United were challenging a magnificent machine like Guardiola's City, years into their project.
Almost a season later, reality's finally setting in. The team and the squad was terribly uneven and was never as good, anyway, as the fans insisted it was. So few of these players get near City, Liverpool, or even Chelsea. Ronaldo's the last psychological crutch the fans have, he's the last place fans can hide and engage in the magical thinking that's blighted the club for a decade.
It's comforting to now say, 'Well, okay, the team *is* rubbish after all, we were fools before... but Ronaldo is still the best in the world, and the rubbish around him is all that's keeping him down!' This is more delusion. The fans are getting closer to reality, but the only reason they go on like this about Ronaldo is that his incredible glory days (or many of them) were at Old Trafford - he's not a great who made his name elsewhere. He's the last link now to the comforting greatness of 10-15 years ago, to the majesty of the Ferguson days. And so, for many, they feel okay admitting current team's bad, but somehow this current team *isn't* Manchester United, this one guy who played in a great Ferguson side 15 years ago *is* Manchester United.
In reality Ronaldo's part of United's history, specifically its most glorious era. But he's so done. Especially in the PL. He's beyond easy to defend against, and it'd be madness to try build a team around him so his Wikipedia stats are boosted, since he'll be retired in a year at most or playing in the MLS. And anyway, you might well serve Ronaldo up goals by going that route, but the damage you'd do to your younger players and likely even your results would make it a total folly. But it's the kind of thing so many United fans are screaming for right now. It's more magical thinking. Duncan Ferguson would probably still score a few headers if a 1 billion pound team was created purely to service him.
If a no-name 37-year-old player put in Ronaldo's performances, the fans would be saying he's not good enough, get someone else in, someone younger, someone dynamic who plays in a way that allows the team to step into the year 2022. Even if it was a superstar 37-year-old who won everything in the past, but who was *without* the connection to United's glory days, they'd want him gone. Add in that this immobile, ineffective, always-offside, complaining non-player is on 500k a week and they'd be chasing him from Old Trafford with pitch forks.
It's pure emotion and delusion, and it's the kind of thing that's crippling United. The ownership monetises this goofiness, and United fans, for all they rightly rage against the Glazers, are easily swayed by this stuff, too.
Anyhoo, long may the madness and magical thinking continue, as far as I'm concerned: I support Liverpool, and am happy for United to live in a fantasy land where Cristiano Ronaldo, now, at this age, despite everything, is the best player in the world, and all you need to do to bring back the glory years, is build a team around him.
Sure. Sounds like a plan...
6 likes
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Top comments
Even if he was scoring 30+ a season we need to plan ahead regardless. He’s 37 and not the player he once was. Keeping him just for the sake of keeping him would be a mistake imo. Free the wage bill up for new signings.
40 likes
“ he isn’t doing the things he’s good at enough” well point
Same with maguire
10 likes
One word explains all our problems. Glazer. Until we force them out it’s just pain and no gain.
17 likes
They forgot the most crucial PL winner Phill Antony Jones
4 likes
i hate how we keep talking about Ronaldo! we havent won in a decade ffs! he can stay or go i couldnt give less f. We need to be a team with or without CR7
21 likes
This made me smile at the end. We go again lads. Up the Paddock
Was Joe comparing Rashford and Ronaldo and saying Ronaldo not come around Rashford? Really?
4 likes
I agree that Ronaldo doesn't have the capacity he used to have. But a player's performance heavily depends on other players as well....and our others players are so shit that it makes a player like Ronaldo look weak as well....
16 likes
I've said this before, I'll say it again - we should not have re-signed Ronaldo....
11 likes
At the start of the season, the fans believed (implausibly) that they had the best squad besides City, and were ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. This was always a kind of magical thinking which refused to allow for the fact Liverpool were destroyed by injuries and Chelsea were in a half-way house. The view even massively underrated how good City are - there was no way United were challenging a magnificent machine like Guardiola's City, years into their project.
Almost a season later, reality's finally setting in. The team and the squad was terribly uneven and was never as good, anyway, as the fans insisted it was. So few of these players get near City, Liverpool, or even Chelsea. Ronaldo's the last psychological crutch the fans have, he's the last place fans can hide and engage in the magical thinking that's blighted the club for a decade.
It's comforting to now say, 'Well, okay, the team *is* rubbish after all, we were fools before... but Ronaldo is still the best in the world, and the rubbish around him is all that's keeping him down!' This is more delusion. The fans are getting closer to reality, but the only reason they go on like this about Ronaldo is that his incredible glory days (or many of them) were at Old Trafford - he's not a great who made his name elsewhere. He's the last link now to the comforting greatness of 10-15 years ago, to the majesty of the Ferguson days. And so, for many, they feel okay admitting current team's bad, but somehow this current team *isn't* Manchester United, this one guy who played in a great Ferguson side 15 years ago *is* Manchester United.
In reality Ronaldo's part of United's history, specifically its most glorious era. But he's so done. Especially in the PL. He's beyond easy to defend against, and it'd be madness to try build a team around him so his Wikipedia stats are boosted, since he'll be retired in a year at most or playing in the MLS. And anyway, you might well serve Ronaldo up goals by going that route, but the damage you'd do to your younger players and likely even your results would make it a total folly. But it's the kind of thing so many United fans are screaming for right now. It's more magical thinking. Duncan Ferguson would probably still score a few headers if a 1 billion pound team was created purely to service him.
If a no-name 37-year-old player put in Ronaldo's performances, the fans would be saying he's not good enough, get someone else in, someone younger, someone dynamic who plays in a way that allows the team to step into the year 2022. Even if it was a superstar 37-year-old who won everything in the past, but who was *without* the connection to United's glory days, they'd want him gone. Add in that this immobile, ineffective, always-offside, complaining non-player is on 500k a week and they'd be chasing him from Old Trafford with pitch forks.
It's pure emotion and delusion, and it's the kind of thing that's crippling United. The ownership monetises this goofiness, and United fans, for all they rightly rage against the Glazers, are easily swayed by this stuff, too.
Anyhoo, long may the madness and magical thinking continue, as far as I'm concerned: I support Liverpool, and am happy for United to live in a fantasy land where Cristiano Ronaldo, now, at this age, despite everything, is the best player in the world, and all you need to do to bring back the glory years, is build a team around him.
Sure. Sounds like a plan...
6 likes