Portuguese ace Cristiano Ronaldo is now poised at the crossroads of his glittering career and will need to prepare for life without Champions League football if he decides to throw in his lot and remain at Old Trafford.
After all, who would have thought that the incomparable Cristiano Ronaldo will be spending his Tuesday and Wednesday nights sitting at home in front of the television watching next season’s Champions League?
Alternatively instead, one of football’s greatest superstars ever is now having to prep his Thursday night schedule as Manchester United ready themselves for their first tryst with European football’s secondary competition – and that’s if they can even make it – for the first time since last season.
United’s go-for-broke Champions League charge for the season went bust besides also failing to secure a top-four finish for the next campaign, with a huge shadow of doubt now cast upon Ronaldo’s future at the Manchester bastion. Apparently Erik ten Hag taking the reins from Ralf Rangnick at the end of the season has at least brought back the silver lining into the dark clouds that had long gathered in the skies above Old Trafford. Yet that being said it’s still not unlikely that the Portuguese ace could take the Dutchman’s impending rebuild as his cue to leave instead.
After all, why would one of the most decorated footballers in history head into the final few years of his career without having even the ghost of a chance to snag another Champions League trophy and be content instead with just being part of a team struggling to implement the framework for future success?
On the other side of the coin, an impressive track record for nurturing young players got Ajax’s boss the job at United. And now the Dutchman will be tasked with developing one of the biggest football clubs in the world, beginning almost from scratch as the foundations at United certainly need to be rebuilt from ground level zero.
With this scenario in mind, Ten Hag now actually has the opportunity to convince the United striker of the challenge, and joy, he could get from helping the club take their first steps on the road to recovery. While he could quite easily leave Old Trafford and bid to claim a sixth Champions League crown elsewhere, he could just as well be remembered as the man who tenaciously clung on in the right spirit and spearheaded the club’s rebuilding besides leading the charge back towards Europe’s elite competition.
The goal for next season will be to begin the project that can hopefully see the halcyon days return.
Convincing him isn’t going to be easy as success isn’t going to come easy for United either but no manager in world football is better placed to do so than Ten Hag.