There’s more than one way to skin a cat and, according to one of the newspapers, Manchester United are certainly not giving up Cristiano Ronaldo without a fight.

We all know that the Portuguese superstar is going to leave Old Trafford and there’s not really much that the English champions can do about it, other than demand an extortionate fee as compensation. Nevertheless, the Daily Mirror aim to squeeze the very last drop of this long-running saga by making the below claim. Excellent story-telling chaps.

Senior players bombarded the winger with phone calls and texts, urging him to stay at Old Trafford.

And an angry Sir Alex Ferguson put his authority as manager on the line by telling his men he will not let the Portugal winger go. “Some of the players decided to take matters into their own hands and give Ronaldo a call,” said a source close to the team.

Authority on the line? So if Ronnie goes to Real Madrid, there will be anarchy at Manchester United then? They’ll talk over Fergie in the dressing room before the match, Rio will ignore team orders and play centre-forward with Rooney while Nani will juggle the ball rather than pass to his team-mates? Oh hang on, the latter is already true actually.

Nevertheless, the writing is on the wall for Manchester United and the newspapers must know this by now!