Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes supposedly made a phone call to Manchester United’s executive vice-president Ed Woodward insisting on action to be taken following the 4-1 defeat at Watford, talkSPORT understands.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was given his marching orders in the aftermath of United’s ultimate humiliation at Vicarage Road on Saturday, which followed in the wake of a number of other equally humiliating defeats.
It is only to be expected that Ronaldo’s return has indeed brought goals as his goal-scoring prowess has never been in question, but, despite all his efforts, United’s recent results were horrifying with the Portugal legend cutting a visibly frustrated, and often openly angry, figure during these perilous times.
talkSPORT understands the 36-year-old has been woefully lamenting the state of the club compared to his previous spell trumpeting unparalleled glory under Sir Alex Ferguson.
And according to correspondent Alex Crook, Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes phoned Ed Woodward after the Hornets defeat to demand change. Was this an act initiated solely by the agent himself or at the behest of someone else who wields power?
“Ronaldo clearly wields a lot of power,” Crook told Jim White on talkSPORT.
“His agent, Jorge Mendes, got in touch with Ed Woodward in the aftermath of the Watford defeat and said, ‘What are you going to do about this?’
“Because Ronaldo, I know, has been absolutely flabbergasted by the drop in standards from when he was last at Old Trafford under Sir Alex Ferguson.
“There were players not turning up to training, players not putting full effort into training sessions.
“And, by and large, the same players were getting picked week-in, week-out.
“They’ve had four very damaging defeats [to Leicester, Liverpool, Man City, Watford] and seven of the XI started all four games.
“What sort of message does that put out to the likes of Donny van de Beek, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial, who aren’t playing?
Ronaldo is obviously, and understandably, not at all accustomed to being part of such embarrassing defeats.
“Players that have let their manager down, let the fans down – still get picked? Ronaldo can’t get his head around that and he’s not the only one.”
Publicly, however, the picture painted and the sentiments that have been resonated are that Ronaldo has clearly come out in support of Solskjaer, tweeting a most heartwarming message of gratitude to the Norwegian following his departure.
The Portugal icon pinned his heart on his sleeve and said on Twitter: “He’s been my striker when I first came to Old Trafford and he’s been my coach since I came back to Man United.
“But most of all, Ole is an outstanding human being. I wish him the best in whatever his life has reserved for him.
“Good luck, my friend! You deserve it!”
All of which speaks well, and most warmly, of Ronaldo as being a true buddy to his former teammate and now former boss at United.
Yet how does all this balance out, or even make any sense, when it has now been alleged that the Portuguese dynamo’s agent Jorge Mendes – after calling the Manchester United hierarchy following Saturday’s loss to Watford –was reportedly given assurances that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was on his way out after the 4-1 debacle?
The result ended in termination for Solskjaer, and he was subsequently given the sack by United barely 24 hours later. Coincidental? Quite unlikely, despite the Norwegian having been skating on whisper-thin ice prior, shrouded in self-denial and courting disaster but was yet miraculously spared without any obvious indications from the hierarchy that he was in peril of losing his job earlier, before the Watford visit and the agent’s ensuing phone call.
According to The Athletic, Mendes was so galled by the result that he actually called the Old Trafford hierarchy immediately after the game – with United chiefs assuring him that ‘matters were in hand’.
It’s also been learnt that Mendes had been in discussions with the Old Trafford hierarchy for a fortnight well before Solskjaer’s termination in the former’s attempts to push Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui – said to have an ‘attainable release clause’ written into his contract should United wish to explore the option further – as a potential replacement for the Norwegian.
How the various pieces of the jigsaw seem to fall neatly into place now, on hindsight.
Mendes’ influence at Old Trafford has apparently been on the increase ever since Ronaldo’s swashbuckling return in the summer.
The same report also outlines that Ronaldo and a host of other United players, allegedly with no mutinous intent, had already lost faith in Solskjaer long before their humiliation in Hertfordshire on Saturday.
Apparently it didn’t take long for the Portugal star to realise that his former teammate was incapable of navigating the squad on the right path for silverware.