Almost three years ago, Man Utd and Erik ten hag mutually terminated the contract of Cristiano Ronaldo after his viral interview with Peirs Morgan where he talked extensively about what it meant to be a Man Utd player at that time.
He spoke about how poorly he thought one of the biggest club in the Premier League was run, and most importantly, how he had no respect for Erik Ten Hag because he did not respect him. Now, a lot of pundits and football fans have had a lot of things to say about the interview, especially in terms of whether Ronaldo had done the right thing or not. Some even went as far as claiming Cristiano Ronaldo had tarnished his legacy at Man Utd.
What fans think about Cristiano Ronaldo Erik ten hag saga
However, in the midst of the wide range of arguments, there are some football fans that have been making the illogical conclusions about the circumstances of Ronaldo’s departure from Man Utd back in November, 2022.
For instance, under an Erik Ten Hag vs Cristiano Ronaldo themed post on Facebook, a football said,
It is strange for football fans to believe that Erik Ten Hag has pushed Cristiano Ronaldo out of the club when evidence proved that the Portuguese Captain had done that all by himself. Yes, it’s true Erik Ten Hag had benched Ronaldo during most of the Premier League games, although the 37 year old player at the time started all 6 games in the Europa league. Does that constitute being pushed out of the club? The answer is no.
The Man Utd manager made a call to bench Ronaldo, just like he did at the beginning of the 2023/24 season with Harry Maguire. In fact, he went ahead to start Luke Shaw, a natural full-back as a centre back ahead of Maguire. But is that the same thing as pushing the former Man Utd captain out of the club? Well, no.
Obviously, he’s still had the club and he managed to come back into first team later in the same season.
If Cristiano Ronaldo had not done the interview right in the middle of the season, would his contract have been terminated? No. Even Sancho who had not yet apologised to Ten Hag still has a contract even if he’d be unable to play for the club until he says sorry.
It is 100% certain that the interview he had with Mr. Morgan was like a final move on the chessboard to get out of Man Utd. Ronaldo orchestrated his exit from the club, mostly because he was not happy at the club.
Without the interview, he probably would have been part of the team that won the Carabao Cup, and would have got more playing time towards the end of the season when Man Utd was struggling to score goals. But according to Cristiano Ronaldo, he had been unhappy at the club both in his first season back at the club after he was gone for 12 years, and that was why he had requested to leave in July 2022.
The only clubs that could afford him in Europe which are less than 3 outside of England, were not interested in his high-priced services, mainly because of his age. The only club that bid for him was his current team, Al Nassr FC, but the deal never happened until December.
All evidence pointed to the fact that Ronaldo wanted to leave Man Utd even before Erik Ten Hag made his mind about the player. But things went from bad to worse at the first half of the season, and Ronaldo could not take it anymore, and he used the interview to set the record straight in his own perspective while also using it as an escape pod.
CR7 knew the interview would be enough to leave Man Utd without having to run out his seven-months-remaining contract while being unhappy at the club.
So Erik Ten Hag never forced Crisitano Ronaldo out of the club. Ronaldo rather forced his way out. That’s the logical truth.
