Cristiano Ronaldo is back at Manchester United today, and it’s not yet clear what this will mean for his long-term future at Old Trafford.
The Portugal international missed Man Utd’s pre-season tour, but is now back at Carrington for what will presumably be a key meeting with the club’s new manager Erik ten Hag.
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside about the situation, former Red Devils midfielder Luke Chadwick suggested that Ronaldo could face some consequences for this distracting saga in Ten Hag’s first summer in charge.
Chadwick has pointed out that it seems clear that Ten Hag is running a stricter regime than has previously been in place at United, and that this is far from the kind of thing the Dutchman would’ve wanted in his first few months at the helm.
Overall, though, the former United midfielder made it clear he’d like to see Ronaldo stay after his strong performances for the club last season.
“It’s an interesting one, we’ve all been waiting with baited breath for an outcome to this situation,” Chadwick said. “Ten Hag can hopefully outline his plans for the club and his plans for Cristiano Ronaldo himself.
“I think this came quite out of the blue really, and many people including myself will have expected Ronaldo to finish his career at Manchester United.
“Obviously Ten Hag’s going to want to have everyone completely buying into his ethos, his philosophy. I imagine Ronaldo will need to rebuild some bridges with Ten Hag and with his team-mates. It sounds like Ten Hag is running a real tight ship at the club in terms of his discipline and expectations of the squad, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out with Ronaldo in the coming days.
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“Obviously I hope he stays at United and scores a lot of goals again, but this has all been a big distraction that I think Ten Hag won’t have wanted. It’ll be interesting to see how their relationship progresses.
“I think Ronaldo obviously still has a lot to offer. He scored 24 goals last season, which is a great return for a striker at any level really.”