Devils’ dilemma over Prodigal Ron
Amonth away and much has changed while much has stayed the same. That fallow summer rumour about Cristiano Ronaldo fluttering his eyelashes at Manchester United is again doing the rounds.
Only this time there seems more to it than merely forcing a pay rise out of Real Madrid.
Diddling the tax man may be no more than a speeding offence for the game’s multimillionaires, but the accusation is still something an image-conscious football god’s image rights can do without.
Coming on top of the catcalls he receives from sections of the Bernabeu intelligentsia whenever he goes 20 minutes without scoring, it tipped the Portugeezer’s desire to leave Spain over the edge.
The prospect of a romantic return to the club that made him, and possible Hollywoodstyle ending, loomed - at least until United appeared to get cold feet.
Attempting to decipher the mixed messages of what is already the transfer saga of 2017, it looks as if a battle is going on between Old Trafford’s commercial and football interests.
Ever since he was handed the reins by David Gill, executive vice-president Ed Woodward has dreamed of bringing CR7 back. Like a mad scientist pursuing the Holy Grail, he has fantasised about presenting the Prodigal One to the owners and their New York Stock Exchange investors.
Being the one to return the four-time Ballon D’Or winner to his spiritual home would seal Woodward’s name in the corridors of power and ensure lecture circuit gigs telling how he pulled off the deal of the century.
Given Real’s ambivalent reaction, they’ve not ruled it out and United have the money. Forget the £1 billion buyout clause – it can be waived if the Spanish kings decide to cash in and they just might while they can.
With his 400 goals and four Champions League trophies, Ronaldo has already made their initial £80m outlay look like a mugging many times over. Even if they get nothing for him, it would be the best bit of business Spain has done since sponsoring Christopher Columbus.
But the chance to replace him with Kylian Mbappe and others and still make a huge profit may be too good to refuse. After all at 32, his value will only decline no matter how good he is and why Real president Florentino Perez played a straight bat this week.
Over in Florida, the Glazers would have been doing cartwheels. Who better to reawaken the dormant diaspora around the globe than CR7? Who better to open 600 million wallets and stir a buying frenzy? Who better to wake the slumbering giant on the field and restore the club to where it thinks it belongs?
Everything was in place. Ronaldo wanted to come, the fans wanted him, the owners wanted him, his agent, Jorge Mendes, who is already acting like a quasi director of football, is there to fix it. As gift horses go, they don’t Cristiano Ronaldo (right) heads in Portugal’s only goal against Russia during their Confederations Cup Group A match at Spartak Stadium in Moscow yesterday. come better than this. He didn’t even seem to mind the weather.
Yes, everyone wants him except a certain Jose Mourinho. The manager has made his plans and Ronaldo isn’t part of them. He has presented his list of players – five for every position, it is claimed - and Ronaldo’s name isn’t on it.
He wants business done quickly – before they reassemble for pre-season training on July 8 – and he knows that negotiations with Real could take longer than Brexit. In fact, it’s the last thing he wants.
It’s not so much about their falling out at Real – that was nasty but not terminal – it is more a football question of where he fits in. Alvaro Morata is the man lined up for the main striker’s role and he’s trying to inculcate a new hunger in a young side.
He’s had a season of dependency on one 30-something and although it worked in terms of goals, Zlatan Ibrahimovic did hold up the play. Talismanic the Swede undoubtedly was but after he got injured, there were signs of a more vibrant attack without him. Swift counter punches are the Mourinho way and even the great Ronaldo may not fit the template.
On the face of it, acquiring a prolific goal scorer for a team that couldn’t hit a barn door without Ibrahimovic seems the ultimate no brainer. But when you look at Ronaldo more closely, you can see why the Special One has doubts.
With his loss of pace, Ronaldo has reinvented himself from dashing winger to loitering poacher. Even when he scored all those goals in the later stages of the Champions League, he did little else except preen.
A hands-on-hips prima donna is not what Mourinho needs for his new United. Indeed, would two giant egos fit into the dressing room?
Behind the apparent tedium of the ‘will he, won’t he’ saga, the power struggle is intriguing. Woodward has been close to his elusive prize before, notably in 2013 right after Fergie retired, but each time it has slipped through his fingers.
Now the stakes are even higher with a Ronaldo return set to propel United to open a gap on Real as the richest club in the world and the Glazers toward their goal of owning a US$4 billion asset.
It will be fascinating to see who wins and the influence of Mr Fix-it Mendes could be crucial. What’s more, Mourinho knows that even if Ronaldo doesn’t come, the pressure will still be on.
If CR7 continues to score goals for fun at either Real or PSG, the manager will have to make sure United are also finding the net or he’ll be blamed for the miss of the century. By both Wall Street and the Stretford End.