Christian Eriksen insists football quickly moves on as Manchester United look to kick on and forget about the unpleasant episode that resulted in Cristiano Ronaldo having his contract terminated by the club.
The club were right to terminate his contract as Cristiano Ronaldo crossed a line.
I also get the impression that it will help Erik ten Hag in the short term, in terms of showing his authority around Carrington, because now it seems like everyone is on board with the manager.
Ten Hag also knows that he may need to pick up certain players after the World Cup, but not Lisandro Martinez, who has topped an incredible year as Argentina became world champions.
Anyhow, back to Ronaldo… who did everyone he could to leave United under a grey cloud. Some fans will tell you he’s done that twice after suggesting he was a ‘slave’ prior to his 2009 transfer to Real Madrid, as per The Guardian.
Not only did Ronaldo refuse to come on as a substitute against Tottenham this season, he ran to TalkTV for a tell-all interview to slate United, the manager and his team-mates. That led to his exit being agreed before the World Cup and the Red Devils have had no problem moving on with two wins in the past week against Burnley and Nottingham Forest.
In Ronaldo’s absence, Rashford is scoring goals in consecutive matches and Anthony Martial has got on the scoresheet.
Eriksen says he is proud to have played with Ronaldo, but he knows life moves on and said the mood within the camp at Carrington is good.
“First of all we are sad that Ronaldo is not part of it, his legacy and his name at any club is special, for me to be fortunate to play with him in my career was very nice,” Eriksen said, as per Eurosport.
“The football goes on. You feel that the next game after, people will forget what it was like before and now our focus is really like he is not here.
“The atmosphere is good, we have a lot of people coming back from the World Cup, the last guys are coming back and everyone is coming together.
“The atmosphere is good. It helps winning games and also before we went away for the World Cup we had a few good games and good wins and it makes it easier to come back and start like this.”
None of this changes the fact that United still need to replace Ronaldo.
It’s unlikely to happen in January, but it has to be a priority in the summer.
