Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag held positive talks with Cristiano Ronaldo yesterday and it now looks like the situation has been resolved.
According to Fabrizio Romano in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Ronaldo has apologised to Ten Hag, and he’s now involved in the Man Utd first-team squad again.
Romano adds that everyone at Old Trafford has been impressed with Ten Hag’s handling of this difficult situation, with action clearly needed against Ronaldo after he walked out of the Tottenham game early.
Still, the Red Devils would also do well to bring Ronaldo back into the fold, with the Portugal international still a world class player, while other attacking players like Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho aren’t really delivering at the moment.
Ten Hag needed to discipline Ronaldo, but it’s also surely good that the 37-year-old has been offered a way back into the team.
“We know how complicated things got for Cristiano Ronaldo last week. He left Old Trafford early in the Tottenham game, so Erik ten Hag decided he had to be dropped. He decided together with the board, and Ronaldo was left out of Ten Hag’s squad for the Chelsea game,” Romano explained.
“Cristiano understood it was not the best way to act. It’s important to mention he’s now back in contention for the first-team, we will see him get an opportunity again. He’s 100% available. But what happened with his talks with Ten Hag? I’m told they have been in constant, direct contact, and it was positive. Ronaldo was really sorry, but also Ten Hag understood the player wanted to be involved more. They spoke about it, they had multiple conversations, and they decided to shake hands and now Ronaldo is back in the United first-team.
“We will now see if Jorge Mendes will continue to try to find a club for Ronaldo in January, but we know it won’t be easy to get such a big deal done in the middle of the season. United would also have to find a new striker, and again it’s not easy to find top players in January.
“Overall, I’m told that all the people in Manchester United think that Ten Hag handled this incident very well, board included.”
It will be interesting to see if Ronaldo can get back into favour with Ten Hag and make an impact in the United first-team between now and January.