Could Ronaldo’s signing ruin Red Devils?

The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo has been a morale boost for Manchester United but the devil in the detail may yet be its ruin.

Cristiano Ronaldo presence at Old Trafford may cast a shadow over Manchester United’s younger talent Picture: AFP

As a reflection of the mood of the faithful, Simon’s response at the garage was typical. “What do you think of Ronnie’s return?” he asked, looking only for affirmation that this was an event to savour.

“It’s the best thing that’s happened at our club in the eight years since Fergie departed,” he added.

He talked of the feel-good factor, the excitement and the goals that will follow.

In his haste to spread the joy he sent a text to his mate in the village, a diehard Gunner: “Lukaku back to Chelsea! Ronaldo back to United! Bendtner back to Arsenal?”

I tried to speak about the noise coming from the engine. He half-listened.

“Look,” he said, “if you get me a ticket for the Newcastle game, there will be a massive discount on the service.”

That Simon should be so lucky. According to reports, black-market tickets for Manchester United’s game against Newcastle United on Saturday are being offered at pounds £2500 ($4640). It is a circus and one that an inordinate number of people want to see. The televised fixtures were set before the move and so Sky and BT Sport have missed this boat.

Who imagined Newcastle would be the game?

Precisely why United have decided to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo is not easily figured. To help them to win trophies? Perhaps to stop him ending up at Manchester City?

Or it may be that the Glazers couldn’t resist the chance of doing something the fans actually wanted? It is also likely that the commercial upside was a factor.

Ronaldo sells shirts, enhances sponsorship deals, increases the fanbase, improves the bottom line. In this league, that stuff matters.

On and off the pitch he has been a phenomenon. Maybe the greatest of all time – certainly a candidate.

Last season he scored 29 goals in Serie A. At 36, he is no longer the best version of himself but, as the punch is the last thing the ageing heavyweight loses, the ability to score goals is Ronaldo’s most enduring attribute.

Those 29 goals made him Serie A’s leading scorer for the first time.

In the excitement of his second coming to the Premier League, uncomfortable truths are easily overlooked.

During his three years at Juventus he scored 101 goals in all competitions and while that would have pleased him, the club paid €100 million ($159m) for a player who they believed would help them to win the Champions League.

They never got close. In the four years before his arrival the team reached two Champions League finals.

Over the next three seasons, they once got to the last eight and were twice eliminated in the round of 16. While he was scoring freely last season, the team struggled, a sequence of nine straight scudettos (Serie A titles) ended with a dismal fourth place.

His legion of fans will say the goals absolve him of all responsibility for the team slump. That would be a simplistic conclusion.

Something that Matthew Benham said about strikers resonates. Benham is Brentford’s owner and the mind behind the club’s extraordinary rise from League One to the Premier League. No club in England have been managed as cleverly as Brentford.

“If I am looking at a striker,” Benham said, “I absolutely do not care about his goalscoring record. For me the only thing that is interesting is how the team do collectively, offensively and defensively, within the context of an individual’s performance.”

How were Juventus affected by Ronaldo’s presence?

Many Juventus watchers felt that the richly talented Paulo Dybala was not the same player after the superstar’s arrival: the artist became the artist’s apprentice. In the football jungle, Ronaldo is the tallest tree. In his shadow, smaller and younger trees may struggle for light.

Edinson Cavani handed over the No.7 shirt, but will Bruno Fernandes step aside and allow Ronaldo to take the free kicks and penalties? Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s football life has suddenly become more complicated.

During his one season as Juventus’s head coach, Maurizio Sarri bemoaned the reality of his station.

“I put Ronaldo’s name down first and then decide what to do next,” he said. Solskjaer may at times feel that, with Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Fernandes, Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood, he has not got a place for Ronaldo.

And every time Ronaldo starts, it will be an opportunity lost for the youngsters, for Rashford or Sancho or Greenwood.

Ronaldo’s greatness was built on his obsession with being the best he could be. For most of his career, that was good for the team. Now it has the potential to retard United’s development.

If this is not to happen, Solskjaer and his players, especially the senior players, will need to be strong and, where necessary, unapologetic in doing what is best for the team.

Harry Maguire, the captain, is coming along nicely as a leader. A great leader must think outside the margins of the consensus view and be prepared to endure the pain of independence, as Roy Keane did so effectively.

There will be times when Ronaldo will not have the energy and the will to press opponents.

With Juventus, Ronaldo’s pressing stats were dismal. He is now back in a league where the physical challenge is greater. If Ronaldo is not working out, will Maguire and others in the team call it as it is?

At the beginning of the 2009-10 Bundesliga season, things were not good for Bayern Munich. The team’s vice-captain at the time, Philipp Lahm, felt those in charge were not listening to the senior players, as he explained in the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper: “If I believe the team is doing nothing, I will intervene and raise uncomfortable truths.”

He said that the club “had loaded up on expensive scorers like (Mario) Gomez and (Arjen Robben) without considering that the two attackers were accustomed to playing in different formations.”

Lahm was 25 when he stepped outside the comfort zone. He would go on to lead his club to Champions League success (2013) and his country to World Cup triumph (2014). His was the kind of leadership that United are going to need to survive the Ronaldo project.

The Sunday Times