Five times Ballon D’or winner Cristiano Ronaldo will not be part of the Manchester United squad which will travel away to Chelsea on Saturday at Stamford Bridge. Ronaldo was seen leaving the stadium’s main bowl just a minute before full-time last night during the Red Devils’ 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. The Portuguese looked dissatisfied following the decision of Erik Ten, who left him out on the bench until the 89th minute during last night’s clash against Tottenham.
Erik ten Hag reacting to the development said that he will deal with the situation during his post-match interview and the aftermath is that Ronaldo will not travel with the team squad for the Sunday game against Chelsea.
Recall that before the season began Ten Hag made a huge promise to Ronaldo who had wanted to leave the club searching for Champions League football. But unfortunately for the 36 years old, he has had many clubs turn down an offer to sign him. Although many of those clubs may have weighed the humongous wage he’s been paid and may likely not be able to sustain such an amount.
Despite displaying several red flags to Manchester United by missing the club’s pre-season games twice, Erik Ten Hag and Manchester United persuaded Ronaldo to stay and help the club.
“It is clear – he is not for sale,” he said after training in Melbourne. “I planned with (having) him, and I am looking forward to working with him.
“But for the rest, I cannot say any more because the situation is still the same as last week.” Erik Ten Hag said.
Ronaldo this season has played a total of 691 minutes in the Manchester United colours, with most of the minutes in the Europa League. He has started all four Manchester United games, playing until full-time in all except for two minutes when he was substituted towards the end of a game.
In United’s 12 games in the Premier League, Ronaldo has been on the squad sheet 10 times, only made the starting line-up twice and subbed in 6 times.
Ronaldo was Manchester United’s top scorer last season scoring 24 goals in all competitions, 18 of which were scored in the Premier League and was just four goals adrift of Mohamed Salah and Heung Min Son who won the golden boot with 22 goals.
Ronaldo featured for Manchester United 39 times in all competitions.
