Erik ten Hag says that Cristiano Ronaldo is not even close to being ready to play for Manchester United
Erik ten Hag said that Cristiano Ronaldo is a long way behind the rest of the Manchester United team in terms of fitness and that the forward needs to play more games to catch up. Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes met with United at Carrington on Tuesday, but he still wants to play for a club in the Champions League and win big trophies.
United and Ronaldo
But United doesn’t want him to leave. The Portugal international still has a year left on his contract with United, so he didn’t go on their pre-season tour to Thailand and Australia. He also wasn’t on the team that lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in a friendly on Saturday in Oslo. However, he hinted on Instagram that he would play in United’s last pre-season friendly against Rayo at Old Trafford by writing, “Sunday, the King plays.”
“Tomorrow he will be in the squad,” Ten Hag told Viaplay after his team lost.
Does Ronaldo have nothing left to do?
Melissa Reddy, who is a senior reporter for Sky Sports, said the following about Ronaldo’s future:
“As we’ve seen on Instagram, Ronaldo has been keeping fit, so there are no concerns from Manchester United over his fitness or physical level; he’s one of the fittest players in world football. Ultimately, Ronaldo did state his desire to leave Old Trafford, but he’s running out of options, and it seems like he’s actually going to have to stay. Perhaps he will try and swing it where the 25 per cent pay cut in his contract will be waived away by United, perhaps he wants to manoeuvre and muscle a new deal, we’ll have to wait and see. But it doesn’t look like Stamford Bridge is on his cards.”
“Chelsea have distanced themselves from a deal for Ronaldo, as have Bayern Munich, Napoli and a lot of other elite clubs that Jorge Mendes, who is Ronaldo’s agent, has tried to sell him to. An offer from Saudi Arabia is astronomical but ultimately, it does not give Cristiano Ronaldo what he wants, which is that legacy. He wants to achieve Champions League records that he thinks no one else will be able to attain in the future.”
“He wants to sign off at the absolute highest level. Now, it looks increasingly like he will have to stay at Manchester United because there are no biters from the big clubs.”