Cristiano Ronaldo’s future has dominated headlines this summer after the superstar forward asked to leave the club last month.
Shortly after the news of Ronaldo’s desire to depart Old Trafford broke, the 37-year-old was left out of Erik ten Hag’s 31-man squad for the tour of Thailand and Australia, with Ronaldo’s absence said to be due to family reasons.
After several weeks of endless rumours, Ronaldo made his return to Old Trafford last week when he played the first half of United’s final friendly of the summer – a 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano.
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Ronaldo did little talking on the pitch in his 45-minute appearance and spectacularly, he was spotted leaving Old Trafford before the final whistle had been blown.
Now, Erik ten Hag has slammed his star striker, alongside other players who seemingly left before time was up insisting that their behaviour was ‘unacceptable’.
“I certainly don’t condone this. This is unacceptable. For everyone. We are a team and then you have to stay until the end,” Ten Hag told Viaplay Sport Netherlands, via Dutch publication AD.
SN’s verdict…
Thus far, Ten Hag has refrained from commenting on Ronaldo’s future and his antics on social media. Seemingly, his patience has run out and it will be fascinating to see if anything comes out of this.
Ronaldo won’t be happy with Ten Hag for retaliating but at the end of the day, his actions were unacceptable. A public feud is the last thing United want and Ten Hag will certainly look to avoid that but that may be unavoidable at this stage.
Clearly, Ronaldo was not the only player at fault last weekend but with his experience and status, you would expect him to set an example for others. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that has happened.
