Ronaldo the mother of all signings

CRISTIANO RONALDO’S goals will make Manchester United competitive.

But it’s his presence and confidence that will give them the aura that will take them back to where they need to be and make them respected in the way they once were.

Old Trafford has felt empty at times in the past few years, even with a 70,000-plus crowd.

But on Saturday it sounded like it did when I played there for Liverpool on the day Eric Cantona (above) returned from his kung-fu-kick ban.

Cantona was the man who started the revolution at United and Ronaldo will, at double speed, make them feared again. You can’t put a price on that. As a side note on Ronaldo, how good was it to see the emotions his mum, Dolores Aveiro, went through as she watched on from the stands?

She has seen her son become a man at United, a legend in Madrid, and then win things in Turin – yet she was still crying with joy.

She kicked every ball when she could have just come out from an executive box a few minutes before the end to shake a few hands and show her face. It was incredible after everything he has achieved and it is the reason none of us should be at all surprised that he’s the player he is.

PASCAL STRUIJK (below) shouldn’t have been sent off for the tackle that led to Harvey Elliott’s horror injury — in fact, it wasn’t even a foul.

The referee, Craig Pawson, basically reacted to the severity of the injury and not the challenge.

And all of us — refs, fans, players and the media — are going to have to accept there will be more injuries if we are going to have a game that resembles the one we love rather than the non-contact bore-fest of the last few seasons.