They’re the best owners in the world.
A boy Ronaldo. Limerick win the All Ireland and Ronaldo returns to United. What a week
2 Likes
They’re a great crowd of lads the Glazers. Shame on those scumbags who call themselves Man U supporters who stormed Old Trafford back in April and generally vilify the Glazers.
2 Likes
They were celebrated on here…
United champions league and EPL double 76/1. Printing money.
Oles at the wheel
The Glazers and JP McManus are great owners
2 Likes
Anti senitisn didn’t die in a Prussian bunker in 1945
2 Likes
Any word on how much Ronaldo is paying utd?
1 Like
The Athletic
When news filtered through on Thursday evening that, to Manchester United’s horror, Cristiano Ronaldo really had agreed to join Manchester City, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke with his inner circle and knew United had to act.
Solskjaer recognised that beyond the playing aspects for Pep Guardiola’s side across town, seeing Ronaldo pull on the blue shirt of City would have wider consequences for United. To allow a legendary United figure to turn out for their local rivals without a fight would damage the club in the eyes of current players, potential recruits, and supporters. Conversely, Solskjaer pictured the benefits re-signing Ronaldo could bring to his squad, one of the youngest in the Premier League, with his ultra-professionalism and elite pedigree.
Solskjaer placed a call to chief executive Ed Woodward with one aim — he wanted to know if United could do the deal instead. It was a quick conversation. Woodward agreed instantly and set about negotiating with Ronaldo’s Italian club, Juventus.
Meanwhile, the network of past United players and even their iconic former manager Sir Alex Ferguson went to work on Ronaldo himself. Ferguson is described by multiple sources as playing a “major role” over the 24 hours, phoning Ronaldo and using his good relationship with Jorge Mendes, the superagent, to aid United’s cause.
Rio Ferdinand is another who stepped in heavily, almost acting as a broker on behalf of United. Ferdinand had a passionate conversation with long-time United team-mate Ronaldo, who was genuinely inquisitive about the impact moving to City might have on his United legacy. Ferdinand was firm in counselling Ronaldo over the hurt seeing him joining City might cause, set against the joy that returning to Old Trafford would bring him and United fans.
Ferdinand is also close to Woodward and made sure United were informed over the financial details. He was still up at 1.30am, sending messages to get the deal moving.
In provocative social media updates on Friday afternoon, sunglasses shielded the bags under his eyes.
At the same time, Bruno Fernandes pressed his Portugal team-mate, Patrice Evra exchanged voice notes with him on WhatsApp, and Solskjaer, who was still a senior player at United when Ronaldo first joined the club as a teenager in 2003, personally intervened too. It was an avalanche of affection.
By 1.15pm on Friday, when Solskjaer performed his media duties ahead of this weekend’s game against Wolves, it was clear that United felt their charm offensive had worked.
It is believed Ronaldo had given his word he was signing up for a second spell by 10.30 that morning.
The Athletic had at that stage been informed United were making a late play and asked Solskjaer at his press conference about the prospect of beating City to the punch. His response was effusive: “Cristiano is a legend of this club. The greatest player of all time, if you ask me. I was fortunate enough to play with him. I coached him when I got my job (on the United staff).
“Let’s see what happens with Cristiano. Everyone who has played with him has a soft spot for him. We’ve always had good communication. Bruno has been talking to him. He knows what we feel about him. If he was ever going to move away from Juventus, he knows we’re here.”
Solskjaer’s eyes danced as he spoke, a sign of anticipation.
United worked quickly. At 4.53pm, the announcement came that the sensational deal was done. It has come at a cost of an initial €15 million with €8 million in add-ons, with Ronaldo poised to sign a two-year contract.
Here, The Athletic reveals how:
Mendes tried all summer to get Ronaldo to United but club executives did not bite for fear of being stung and a belief Juventus would refuse to sellCity had fully agreed a deal with Ronaldo, who gave Juventus team-mates the impression he was joining Guardiola’s Premier League champions as recently as 8am FridayThere are suspicions Mendes used City’s interest to get United to the table, and claims the gazumping will have potential repercussions for future business at the EtihadFerguson has repeatedly wanted United to re-sign Ronaldo, most recently in 2019, and said that “all hell would have broken loose” had the club failed to land him nowRonaldo is seen as a transformative figure at set pieces as well as elsewhere on the pitch, with United in need of a centre-forward presence amid doubts over Edinson Cavani’s future availabilityRonaldo is completing his medical in Lisbon and then joining up with the Portugal national team, as there was not enough time to complete the paperwork for him to play against Wolves.
For over a year now, Ronaldo has not been content with life at Juventus.
The Athletic reported earlier this year that he had in fact been offered to Paris Saint-Germain during last summer’s transfer window. PSG declined that approach, partly because much of their attention even then was focused on preparing a package to tempt Lionel Messi away from Barcelona, as the Argentinian briefly appeared to be available, but also because their president Nasser Al-Khelaifi is not as close to Mendes as he had been in the early days of Qatari rule at the Parc des Princes.
This summer, Ronaldo’s future has appeared uncertain.
On the surface, it seemed he may remain in Turin. After Lyon eliminated Juventus in the Champions League last-16 just over a year ago, club chairman Andrea Agnelli described Ronaldo as a “pillar of Juventus” and suggested any links to PSG were “mischief” on the part of journalists. Then, on July 7 this year, Agnelli presented his new executive team and again insisted there had been no indication from Ronaldo that he wished to leave.
Agnelli said: “There hasn’t been any signal on his part or that of Juventus. We’re really happy with Cristiano and as soon as he’s finished his deserved (post-European Championship) rest he’ll join up with that team for pre-season.” Ronaldo did as Agnelli suggested he would, reporting for his pre-season medical on July 26, which led to cautious optimism he would remain.
However, following PSG’s free-agent signing of his great rival Messi on August 10, speculation intensified over Ronaldo’s future.
Ten days ago, Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti took the unusual step of writing on Twitter that he had not considered bringing the player back to the Bernabeu this summer. Ronaldo then wrote on his own social media, stating his unhappiness with the manner in which he felt his name was being “played around” in the media during this transfer window.
The Athletic has learned that, shortly before these two statements, Ancelotti was made aware that Ronaldo would be open to a return to Madrid, the club he left for Juventus in 2018, and the player’s entourage were eager for him to press club president Florentino Perez into agreeing a dramatic return.
One source close to the situation said: “Cristiano was absolutely desperate to get out of Turin and into an environment where he could be happier.” Madrid were given the firm impression that Ronaldo felt he had made a grave mistake by heading to Italy.
Ancelotti, however, is a shrewd politician and he knows the buttons to press. When he returned to Madrid for a second spell as coach in June, his first meeting with Perez saw the president outline very clearly that PSG striker Kylian Mbappe would be their sole objective of this summer’s window, even if that meant sacrificing stalwart defenders Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane in the process, and that no move for other high-profile forwards should be considered. Indeed, Ancelotti knew that Perez has previously “shut the door” on previous attempts by Ronaldo to return to Madrid.
Despite Ancelotti’s inaction, stories continued to emanate, which led to the coach denying any links on Twitter. Amid Madrid’s disinterest, Mendes made PSG aware that Ronaldo could be open to joining them, yet the French club have never entertained this prospect this summer and the suggestions that he could link up with Messi and Neymar in the French capital were only ever the figment of imaginative graphics on social media.
As Mendes scoured the market for opportunities, he fixed his gaze on Manchester City.
Around 10 days ago, City were presented with the chance to sign Ronaldo but initially declined the option, as they remained focused on Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane and, mistakenly, believed they could get a deal for the England captain over the line in this window. Indeed, The Athletic has been told that as late as last Thursday, sources in Spain were made aware that Guardiola did not want Ronaldo and, to quote a well-placed source, “had closed the door” on any possible transfer.
Yet within a week, widespread reportage made clear that Guardiola had spoken to Ronaldo to discuss where he would fit into the team and City saw Kane commit his future to Tottenham. Mendes already has a stable of clients at City, including Ederson, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo, and the club were indebted to the agent for constructing a deal that saw Dias join them from Benfica last summer, while fellow defender Nicolas Otamendi headed from the Etihad to the Lisbon side.
Negotiations commenced on Monday and intensified rapidly through Tuesday.
Mendes was reported to have met with City representatives in Paris on Tuesday evening and City were, at that stage, confident a deal would be done, albeit insistent that nothing had been concluded. Indeed, a senior source at the Etihad insisted on Tuesday afternoon that City were still deliberating internally as to whether they truly wanted a player their coach appeared to have written off as a target less than a week earlier.
Those deliberations included the stylistic fit of the player and also how Ronaldo’s wages may impact dressing room harmony. However, by Tuesday night, there was an expectation both from City and representatives of Ronaldo that the player would return to Manchester but to play in light blue not United red.
Ronaldo himself is said to have told a Juventus team-mate that he expected to join City as late as Friday morning, as he arrived at training around 8am UK time.
City’s temptation was dictated by on-the-field necessity, as they require a centre-forward having not got Kane, but also the off-the-field boost the signing would give to the club’s commercial presence. Sources in the Middle East, meanwhile, suggested the decision by PSG’s Qatari owners to sign Messi would have triggered sensitivities in the United Arab Emirates, where City’s owners had long pined for the Argentinian. After missing out on Messi, there is a view that they sensed an opportunity to lay down their own marker. This would not have been the motivation for the transfer, but it would have been seen as a benefit, particularly as relations between Qatar and the UAE remain frosty, even more so than current relations between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday, Mendes flew to Turin and on Thursday morning, at a meeting with Juventus vice-president Pavel Nedved, their new chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene and sporting director Federico Cherubini, he made clear it was Ronaldo’s intention to leave.
The timing — five days before the end of the transfer window, and with the season already started — was not appreciated. Mendes was told any deal would be on Juventus’s terms. Ronaldo participated in an open training session but he was the first to leave and also emptied his locker. He flew out at around 2.30pm local time in Italy to Lisbon for his medical, touching down in his homeland at 4pm.
Mino Raiola, the superagent who represents Paul Pogba, was also at Juventus’s Continassa headquarters on Thursday, mostly to discuss the future of his client Wesley, a 21-year-old Juventus midfielder, but those discussions evolved into talks about the Everton forward Moise Kean, who could return to former club Juventus to replace Ronaldo.
The Portuguese returned to Turin from Lisbon and spent 40 minutes saying his farewells on Friday morning. Head coach Max Allegri confirmed he did not train and would not be involved in Saturday’s home game against Empoli after expressing his intention to leave. By then, everybody involved knew the Manchester switch had occurred and that Ronaldo would be heading to Old Trafford as the two clubs held talks over a fee.
Juventus signed Ronaldo from Madrid for €117 million in the summer of 2018. He had been in the third year of a four-year deal worth a salary of €31 million net a year. After amortisation, his book value is €28.8 million, which is why Juventus needed a fee in the region of that amount in order not to record a loss in their accounts.
City’s first wish was to pay no money as a transfer fee but it is believed they were prepared to agree a price with Juventus after talks with Mendes this week. United, meanwhile, clicked into gear, or as one source close to negotiations put it, “woke up”. Late on Thursday evening, the pressure began.
Ferguson was at the heart of the strategy. His relationship with Ronaldo is genuinely as good as the misty-eyed testimonies make out. The Scot is described as being one of the few people in the world that Ronaldo “still defers to”.
Ronaldo’s biggest appreciation was the way his former manager chose him over fellow United forward Ruud van Nistelrooy following their training ground bust-up in 2005. His compassion after Ronaldo’s father died when the player was just 20 also left a lasting bond.
United’s first call to Ronaldo came late on Thursday night and Ferguson was a “decisive factor”. He has advocated United re-signing Ronaldo since he retired as manager after the 2012-13 season, with the most recent push coming two years ago. Ferguson pressed Solskjaer to make a move for Ronaldo, who was then having difficulties at Juventus under new manager Maurizio Sarri.
Ferguson has seen wishes for United to sign other players go unfulfilled but was not about to let this opportunity go by.
On Thursday he called members of United’s board and also Mendes, with whom he shared a healthy respect, to ensure United were doing everything possible. Sources say “all hell would have broken loose” if United had missed out again.
Former United players rallied round too, and word seeped out. It was no coincidence that Derby County manager Wayne Rooney spoke so strongly that evening against ex-strike partner Ronaldo joining crosstown rivals City.
Woodward negotiated with Agnelli, the pair having grown closer during the planning for the mooted Super League scrapped this spring, and they worked swiftly to a resolution. From a United perspective, the process was smooth and efficient, and Ronaldo will even be on lower wages than he was being paid in Turin.
The United squad are ecstatic at Ronaldo’s arrival. There is a belief he can change the dynamic of the dressing room with his fastidious approach and peerless trophy collection. “He will up the levels,” says a source close to the players. “He’s like Mr Miyagi in The Karate Kid — an expert of his craft. As a young lad, you will be in awe.”
An industry insider said United had to act to stop Ronaldo going to City. “The Glazers went and signed Tom Brady for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (last summer) and won the Super Bowl (in the legendary quarterback’s debut season). As Man United’s owners, you have to be shown to be putting respect on the club’s name — ‘We are competitive, we’re not letting him go there’.”
There may be collateral. Those with knowledge of the football business believe the relationship between Mendes and City will be impaired by this bruising episode.
Conversely, United were internally worried about Ronaldo going to the Etihad from a legacy perspective. They might have been forced to airbrush him from the club’s history in some ways were he to have made waves on the other side of Manchester.
United believe that even at 36, and turning 37 in February, Ronaldo can have a real impact for them on the pitch. There are doubts about Cavani’s availability this season due to his insistence on playing for Uruguay, who have World Cup qualifiers next month and in October and November, and the COVID-19 quarantine on returning to the UK that those trips to South America would currently entail, while Anthony Martial was once more an ineffective presence up front in last weekend’s draw with Southampton.
Ronaldo, with his phenomenal aerial ability, is viewed as providing Solskjaer with an asset in either box and United believe he has many more years at the top level despite his age.
It is a homecoming to cherish for United fans but club sources say this transfer is not about reliving the past.
They want to forge new memories.
(Additional contributors: David Ornstein and James Horncastle)
(Main graphic: Created for The Athletic by Sam Richardson)
2 Likes
Where does all this leave Greenwood? I thought the master plan was Greenwood would learn the ropes from Cavani for another season and then take over as the main man.
The level of seete I had yesterday evening on the news that Ronny was off to city was worthy of the esteemed tread. 24 hours later I’m ecstatic. Pipe dreams of his return for years laughed at by supporters of other clubs. At 36 he’s he’s best man of his age. Still top level. I stated earlier in this tread of my hatred of this seasons jersey. I’ll be buying it with Ronaldo on the back. I’m a child again, even though I still have the mental age of a six year old. What a fucking week. 2013/14 would never think Limerick would win 3 AIs and Ronaldo back to united
10 Likes
I thought Ed Woodward stepped aside?
1 Like
There until the end of the year.
Gone at the end of the year.
Not sure who’ll take over. Hopefully JD gets it.
He’ll only be 21 when Ronaldo goes.
An incredible moment
6 Likes
The way the boss looks at him as he walks on down the steps. 
1 Like
The sense of occasion on his first game back will be special.
5 Likes
Wasn’t planning on going to Newcastle game but will have to look into it now.
5 Likes
He’ll learn the ropes from the greatest goalscorer ever to play the game and then take over in two years.