Ups and Downs: A Fan's Perspective of Ronaldo's Time at Manchester United

As a fan of Manchester United, I have loved and hated Cristiano Ronaldo, the player who has become the most expensive footballer of all time. He had a great career at United, being one of the most successful players to wear a red shirt, but now, it is clear that there will always be blemishes on his time at OId Trafford.

At the start of his United career, signing from Sporting Lisbon for around £12 million, he looked extremely talented and showed massive promise. Eventually, he exceeded all expectations and developed into an outstanding all round player. Ronaldo struggled early on due to his inexperience, and opposition crowds struggled to respect a player who continuously dived. Many players dive but he was one of, if not, the worst in the Premier League and his reputation was growing in the wrong direction with fans and referees.

Gradually, he grew ever more confident (and/or cockier) and developed parts of his game which he hadn’t previously displayed, like strength on the ball and aerial ability. He seemed to dive less, I know a lot of people will disagree with this statement, but in comparison to his earlier antics, he cleaned up his over reliance on simulation. His reputation as an arrogant player and person was well established amongst opposition fans, and this led to me having to defend him often. The main incident that comes to mind is the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where Rooney was sent off for a stamp on Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho. here were shots of Ronaldo pleading with the referee to send off his club teammate, and after Rooney was given his marching orders, a camera cut to Ronaldo who seemed to be winking to his bench. A lot of people thought that he was suggesting ‘I made that happen’, but if you watch the action properly, you can quite clearly see Rooney stamping on the defender and any referee, well maybe with the exception of Graham Poll, would give that a straight red card. The ‘wink’, and Ronaldo’s talk to the referee, were irrelevant.

After all this, speculation indicated that Real Madrid were coming to test United’s resolve, with rumours that they were going to bid 50m for the young winger. Instead, he denied wanting to leave United and signed a new contract which made him the highest paid player in the team’s history. With this behind him, Ronaldo probably had the best season of his career. He scored 42 goals, whilst helping United to secure the Premier League and Champions League double. That season earned him a spot as one of the best players in the world, alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Kaká. At this stage, I still loved this man, and believed that he was the driving force that United needed.

Once this season was over, the speculation started again, and my likening for Ronaldo started to decrease. Reports from Sky Sports were suggesting that Ronaldo had expressed an interest in moving to Real Madrid. United filed a complaint to FIFA over the illegal pursuit of Ronaldo, but nothing was done. Ronaldo stated that he would stay for another season and that he was committed to United.

Some say that I should stop complaining about Ronaldo, as he was still our top goal scorer once again this season. I recognise this, but it was the way he was going about it. When he was coming back from an injury at the beginning of last season, he didn’t look like he wanted to play and sulked more than before. Being at Manchester United should be an honour as we are one of the biggest teams and in my opinion (obviously biased) are the best team there is. Ronaldo loves to win trophies and awards for himself, so why not keep winning these things at United. Take Wayne Rooney for example, I believe that Rooney will want to stay the distance at United. This is the sort of loyalty that Ronaldo did not and will not show.

Reports prior to the Champions League final, were suggesting that Ronaldo was already telling the players that he was leaving in the summer. The timing was awful; an awareness that they would be losing their best player in the summer must have affected the confidence of the other players. Not to discredit Barcelona, who totally outplayed United, but I believe these rumours affected them in the final. What made things worse was another report indicating that Ronaldo made a deal with Real Madrid last season, telling them that he would wait one year before coming out and expressing his desire to leave United. This sort of dealing is totally illegal and is essentially worse than tapping up.

Now Ronaldo has signed for Real Madrid, at a cost of £80million, and United have done a great bit of business, making a £68million profit. I now have a substantially decreased liking for Ronaldo, and it has grown from the increasing show of selfishness that occurred over the course of this season. He was a great player for United and I will admit I loved him, but now I couldn’t care less about him. I can now see what other people saw in him when I had my biased view.

I would put some money on United meeting Real Madrid in the Champions League at some point, either in the group stages or in the early rounds. It will be interesting to see how Ronaldo will be greeted at Old Trafford if this scenario occurs.


Robbie Morrison

To suggest that players joining City lack ambition is about as ludicrous as suggesting that John Terry leaving Chelsea will cost England the World Cup

Manchester City’s summer spending spree has prompted many to suggest that their new acquisitions are motivated by money alone. I couldn’t disagree more. To state that the likes of Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor and Carlos Tevez lack footballing ambition is ridiculous. Barry, Adebayor and Tevez have joined a club with a short term plan to break up the Big Four’s monopoly on the Champions League places and with a mid term plan to challenge for the Premier League and the Champions League titles. I shudder to think at what the long term plan is, sounds ambitious enough to me. Barry, Adebayor and Tevez have also joined a club who, through the signing of Premier League players such as Barry and the attempt to secure a deal for Terry, have weakened the teams around them. If offered the opportunity to work for a club who have had bids rejected for the England captain John Terry, and as he was in January, World Player of the Year, Kaka, most ambitious players would jump at the chance. Manchester City’s pursuit of John Terry signals a real intent, although Chelsea dismissed reports that Terry might be on his way, I’m positive that we will see a forth approach this week topping £40 million.

There seems to be a widespread ‘how dare they’ attitude to the John Terry bid. Many have pointed out that because Terry wouldn’t immediately be playing Champions League football at City, and that this drop in level would effect his ability to perform as a player and captain of the national side. This simply isn’t the case. To suggest that by playing Champions League football Terry faces world class players week in week out is ridiculous. If we presume that Chelsea will be semi-finalists again this year (because they generally are), let's count the world class opposition. As a top seed Chelsea’s group invariably includes two rubbish teams, from rubbish leagues, with rubbish strikers and one half decent German/Italian/Spanish team, not world class opposition. As group winners they will play the mediocre team who finish second in a group with a similar structure in terms of quality, and again, Terry wouldn’t face world class opposition. Then we have Chelsea’s annual encounter with Liverpool, a team that Terry faces in domestic competition. So a semi-final, and two games against world class opposition -- not really the ‘week in week out’ challenge he needs in a World up year. I’m sure that Terry’s ability will not magically disappear because he doesn’t play two games against Real Madrid or Barcelona. Our national side might even benefit from a captain who isn’t burned out.

So, we come to Adebayor, it has been a week since Arsenal sold him and I seem to be the only disappointed Gooner. Every Arsenal fan I have spoken to seems to think that we have offloaded a poor, lazy player for a huge amount. Let's deal with the facts Adebayor scored 62 goals in 114 starts for Arsenal. Last season Adebayor scored 10 league goals in 21 starts, and 6 in 8 in the Champions League, so that’s 16 in 29 last year, not that bad at all. He scored one less than Robin Van Persie in the Premier League, and Robin was voted Arsenal’s best player last season. Granted Van Persie hit the woodwork 16 times and created the most Premier League goals with 11 assists, but, it has to noted that Adebayor, who was out for a long spell only scored two less than Wayne Rooney, and created the same amount with 7 assists. Wayne Rooney is regarded as the exact opposite of Adebayor by many people, a team player who works hard, as opposed to Adebayor a selfish and lazy individual. Is this the same selfish Adebayor who created as many goals for team-mates as the selfless Wayne Rooney? Is this the same lazy Adebayor who missed a long spell after pulling a hamstring desperately trying to reach a misplaced pass in the North London derby?

In the past four seasons only three players who currently play in the Premier League have scored over 20 league goals in one season. Adebayor is joined on this list by Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, the two best strikers in the league. If Owen stays fit he is capable of scoring 20+ too, so realistically there are four players who can score over 20 goals this season, and until last week the ‘Big Four’ all had one each. Adebayor has been called a one season wonder by many but he was plagued by injuries last season, as was Torres, yet he was still awarded the plaudits he deserved last term. On paper, Adebayor’s 16 in 29 looks better than Torres’s 17 in 38 last year, if we add to that Adebayor’s 7 assists against Torres’ 5 then Adebayor was worth more goals in less games last season. I am not suggesting that Adebayor is a better striker than Torres, as I feel that Torres is the best in the world, but in the past two years they have had similar scoring records. It’s all there in black and white, yet Torres is lauded whilst Adebayor is criticised. Torres' £25 million fee is regarded as a snip, yet Adebayor has been deemed to be overpriced in an increasingly inflated market. In this market, if Rooney and Torres were to be sold they would cost around £50 million, so is Adebayor really 'over priced' at half this amount?

GoonerDale