How Man Utd should handle the Cristiano Ronaldo situation
FT Desk
- Updated: 6 Aug 2022 18:01 BST
- 4 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo wants out of Manchester United. Anthony Martial is injured. Ajax won't sell Antony. Where do Man Utd go from here?
Cristiano Ronaldo is set to start for Manchester United when they open their 2022/23 Premier League campaign at home to Brighton on Sunday.
A club legend with 102 top-flight goals for the club - 18 of which came last season - leading the line should be nothing but good news, but there is wider context to the current situation.
Ronaldo wants Champions League football, missed the club's pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia, and when he was subbed off midway through their final pre-season friendly against Rayo Vallecano, went home earlier, drawing the ire of new coach Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo doesn't rate Ten Hag pic.twitter.com/5MA43tjjkX
— Cigano 🇵🇹 (@RealQuaresma) July 31, 2022
"It is unacceptable for everyone [to leave early]," he told Dutch broadcaster Viaplay Sport. "I'm telling them it's unacceptable. We're a team. A squad. Until the end we stay together."
While Ronaldo's body language when Ten Hag tried to talk tactics with him in the Rayo game left a lot to be desired, so too does the fact that his fitness is not where it should be having missed so many weeks of pre-season.
Martial scored three and assisted one more leading the line in Ronaldo's absence this summer, but a hamstring injury now means that he is expected to miss the next two weeks of action.
What are Ten Hag's in-house options?
Ronaldo may get the nod up front against Brighton, but going forward, playing a wantaway 37-year-old up front is unlikely to be a solution Ten Hag is happy with.
In Martial's absence, Marcus Rashford would appear to be the most obvious solution in attack. The academy graduate prefers starting out wide, but he has led the line before and plundered 17 Premier League goals as recently as the 2019/20 campaign.
Antony Elanga hasn't yet had the chance to prove that he could start up front for the first-team, but 13 strikes in 24 Premier League two games over the last two years suggest he at least has the requisite eye for goal.
What about the transfer market?
Ajax have haemorrhaged players this summer, including Lisandro Martinez, who joined United in a €67 million deal last month, and they are reluctant to see their squad stripped further bare.
Accordingly, Antony - a long-term target of Ten Hag's - has had a €100m price tag slapped on him, effectively pricing United out of a move.
So where to United go from here? The recent link with Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane makes a lot of sense. Sane knows Manchester well having won two Premier League titles with Pep Guardiola's City in 2018 and 2019.
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He should also be available, having dropped below Sadio Mane, Serge Gnabry and now Jamal Musiala in Bayern's final third pecking order.
Neymar was also floated as a possibility earlier this summer, but he has already hit 30 and his PSG contract has rolled over until 2027. He might cost Antony money and United would plausibly be better with Sane on and off the pitch.
Sane and Jadon Sancho could swap wings on the fly, leaving Rashford to play through the middle, and his arrival would help render Ronaldo's behaviour irrelevant.
