Chelsea making a mistake to covet creaking Ronaldo

GRAhAM POttER can only hope todd Boehly backs him, the way the Glazers ultimately did Erik ten hag. By sacking Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United’s owners showed the manager mattered. it can be argued they should have done this earlier, maybe when he was recruited, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seemed as hot to trot as Sir Alex Ferguson and everyone else at the club. Yet they did the right thing, eventually. After his criticism of the club, either Ronaldo’s position was untenable or ten hag’s was and they went with the man better for United in the long term. Now it is up to Boehly to do likewise. When even Vincent Kompany, manager of tier two Burnley, is cracking jokes about taking on Ronaldo — ‘i need somebody who can run,’ he said — why do the rumours linking the player and Chelsea persist? Maybe it is just coming from Ronaldo’s camp. the only way the United episode does not appear ruinous to his client’s career is if agent Jorge Mendes can somehow conjure a final chapter among the elite in the Champions League. Maybe that is why the meeting with Bayern Munich leaked, too. Mendes needs a market if Ronaldo is not to appear yesterday’s man. Yet having gambled, so far unsuccessfully, on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, why would Potter want another high-maintenance superstar past his prime? And what does it say if he makes that plain and Boehly over-rules? it took United far too long to understand the danger of flawed marquee signings. having seen what has gone wrong at Old trafford, Boehly should not be repeating those mistakes.