Manchester United icon Cristiano Ronaldo has delivered a scathing review of his former club and defended the slow start made by his compatriot Ruben Amorim.
The former Sporting CP coach, who played alongside Ronaldo for the Portuguese national team, has lost five of his first ten matches since moving to Old Trafford in November. This is the worst start by any United boss in the last 90 years.
As Ronaldo was quick to point out, Amorim took over a club that had been mired in mediocrity for years. During his first spell in Manchester under Sir Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo won nine major trophies and won the 2008 Ballon d’Or. However, his second tenure ended in disgrace, with him leaving the club at the end of 2022 following a public disagreement with then manager Eric ten Hag.
Ten Hag was sacked early in the season with United in 14th. After six weeks under Amorim, the Red Devils remain in exactly the same position. ,[The] The Premier League, it’s the toughest league in the world,” Ronaldo argued at the Globe Soccer Awards ceremony in Dubai on Friday.
“All teams are good, all teams fight, all teams run, all teams are strong. Football is different now. There is no easy game anymore.”
“He [Amorim] did a great job with me in portugal [club] Sporting,” Ronaldo said. “I knew it would be tough and they would keep storming. But the storm will end and the sun will rise.”
Ronaldo adopted an unpleasant – and slightly confusing – analogy to explain United’s current poor state of affairs: “I said it a year and a half ago, and I’ll continue to say it: the problem is not the coaches, it’s the… I always give this example… it’s like an aquarium if you have a fish inside and it is sick and you take it out and solve the problem and you put it back in an aquarium again. Will become ill.
“Manchester United has the same problem. The problem is not always the coach. It’s much more than that.”
The 39-year-old is still involved in Saudi Arabia’s top flight but his playing career is far from over, but he stressed that his football talents are not limited to the pitch. “If I were the owner of the club,” Ronaldo said, “I would clarify things and adjust the things that are bad there.” Unfortunately for Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Portuguese forward didn’t elaborate on his grand plan to save United.