C-Ron Saga Giving Fergie a Taste of His Own Medicine

By: Daryl | June 21st, 2008

Here’s what Cristiano Ronaldo said after Portugal’s Euro 2008 quarterfinal defeat to Germany:

“It is always difficult. It is not only one person deciding, it is many people, but it can be a very good thing for everybody. Let’s see in a couple of days. You will soon know what I want. You know what I want [already] and that is why I don’t want to say anything else. Let’s wait. I want to give more details. I am going to say what I want but things don’t depend only on me, that is why we have to wait.”

I added the bold, because it’s clearly the most important bit. It basically confirms that C-Ron wants out of Manchester United and in at Real Madrid.

Alex Ferguson obviously feels differently. But what can Fergie do about it?

As far as I can tell, this is the first time Fergie has been faced with a player who wants out of Old Traffod and the feeling isn’t mutual. With David Beckham and Ruud van Nistelrooy the feeling was somewhat mutual. With Ronaldo it isn’t.

To sum up, Fergie’s options boil down to this:

1. Sell him. Take the money and spend it on someone else. Cross your Scottish fingers that you can find a suitable replacement (and replacing C-Ron is a whole ‘nother blog post).

2. Keep him. Refuse all bids, keep CR7 against his will, keep playing him. Cross your Scottish fingers crossed that a miserable Ronaldo can still score goals and that his attitude doesn’t destroy dressing room morale.

3. Bench him. Refuse all bids and send Cristiano Ronaldo to play in the reserves. Cross your Scottish fingers and hope six months of that changes Ronaldo’s mind. Try not to think about the 120,000 a week that’s being wasted.

Basically none of those options seems particularly appealing, since none of those options gives Fergie the same Ronaldo he had for the past two seasons. Someone else will have to score 42 goals. Michael Carrick maybe?

On one hand, I’ve got sympathy for Fergie. He’s used to being king of the castle and deciding player’s futures.

On the other hand, there are plenty of Fergie’s former rivals who would say this is a taste of his own medicine.

John Gregory, for example, had Dwight Yorke snatched away from him at Aston Villa after Fergie mounted a “we want him” campaign not entirely dissimilar to Ream Madrid’s Ronaldo campaign.

What goes around comes around.

But there are bigger things at stake here. At the time of Yorke’s transfer it was no secret that Man Utd were a bigger club than Aston Villa. Only the most die-hard Villains would argue otherwise (and even then, they’d have to be pretty drunk.)

But Man Utd quite rightly see themselves as being the equal (or better) of Real Madrid. Madrid was the place Fergie sent his high profile cast-offs like Becks and RvN. But should Ronaldo leave Old Trafford for what he sees as the bigger and better Bernabéu and a fatter paypacket, then maybe we’ll have to rethink the pecking order among Europe’s elite clubs.