Makes you wonder whether the champions were ever really interested in the 37-year-old.
It seemed inconceivable, back in August, that Cristiano Ronaldo could ever pitch up at the Etihad Stadium and start chasing trophies at Manchester City.
That is exactly what looked to be transpiring in those final 48 hours of the summer 2021 transfer window. With Harry Kane not being allowed his move away from Tottenham and both Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland staying put, at PSG and Dortmund, City boss Pep Guardiola was eyeing up a swoop for Ronaldo.
Those were the reports, and insider claims, anyway. United, a club seemingly fuelled by ego and social media sentiment, could not let this sit. So, as former boss Alex Ferguson worked the phones on behalf of then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra did their best – with voice notes and pleas – to get Ronaldo to choose United over City.
United eventually got their man. They won the social media war for a few days. Weeks, even. Fast forward to March 7 and City have beaten them twice in the league and are 22 points ahead in the standings.
You wonder whether Ronaldo was ever destined for City at all. Why Pep Guardiola would go against so many of his coaching tenets to bring in an ageing striker that had hardly lit up the Champions League for Juventus.
Hearing Guardiola speak of the tactics United employed in the first half of their 4-1 defeat to City, on Sunday, it must have dawned on those last few remaining sceptics that the Spaniard was never as set on Ronaldo as his representatives had claimed. On United’s first-half press, Guardiola told the BBC:
“It was so aggressive, the mentality for Ralf [Rangnick].
“Without Cristiano, they can do it. We struggled to make it up. The first half we had more chances on the counter attack.
“In the second, Bernardo [Silva] was more involved, the movement from everyone was excellent and we played really good. Our decision making during the game was good and that’s why we won the game.”
Against United, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne played in the advance attacking roles and were creative and dangerous, as well as pressing and hounding the likes of Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Had Guardiola brought in Ronaldo, he would have been either expecting him to change the habits of a career leading the line or modifying his highly successful tactics.
Man United scrapped original plans for Project Ronaldo
Those looking after Ronaldo, when it was made clear that he had reached the end of the road with Juventus, would have looked at all the clubs he could join and the options would have been limited.
- Manchester United
- Real Madrid
- Manchester City
- Leaving Europe for the likes of China, Qatar or the USA
- Sporting (Lisbon)
Real were clearing names and salaries in anticipation of a summer 2022 charge at Mbappe. City are one of the form teams in Europe and were surely not after a short-term fix, in Ronaldo.
That left a return to United or Sporting, or saying goodbye to Europe and leaving that turf to Lionel Messi, who was linking up with Mbappe and Neymar Jr. at Paris Saint Germain. As it all turned out, for Ronaldo, his team played their hand perfectly.
Under Solskjaer, United looked to be heading into 2021/22 with an attacking trident of Sanch0-Greenwood-Rashford, with the experienced Edinson Cavani hanging around for another season to take all the scoring pressure off Mason Greenwood. That plan – since blighted by Greenwood’s suspension – was completely nuked by the purchase of Ronaldo.
In their haziest of day-dreams, United were bringing back a proven winner, and goal-scorer to get them from nearly men to title winners.
The reality is United had not pulled off a similar Dimitar Berbatov swoop for a top talent, in 2008. They had been suckered into going after a supposed Manchester City target again, like Alexis Sanchez in 2018.
