A FAN'S VIEW: MARY HANNIGANsays Ronaldo never had any emotional attachment to the club
YOU WILL, no doubt, recall that harrowing day when Take That announced they were breaking up. If Sky News had been around in 1936, they’d hardly have covered the abdication of King Edward VIII with any more gravity or more sombrely. Even to the point where they had a counsellor in the studio to talk the teenies through their Take That trauma. Quite right too. They might have since reformed, but some of us will never get over that heartbreak.
So, on that dark day Sky had their finger on the nation’s pulse. Yesterday? Well, they brought their finger northwest to Manchester, in anticipation of post-Take-That-breaking-up-type-desolation. But at the time of going to press they were still trying to locate the pulse. Much to their wonder, there was divil a sign of any Reds threatening to chuck themselves in the canal.
That’s not to say they couldn’t find anyone who was upset about Cristiano Ronaldo’s imminent departure to Real Madrid, the one club on this earth that makes Manchester United seem like the People Before Profit Alliance.
“I’m devastated, he was my favourite player,” said one fan, who did have the look of someone in need of a chat with the Take That counsellor. Another was “amazed, but not surprised”, another worried about where the goals would come from next season, but he hoped Alex Ferguson would spend the money wisely. And let’s be honest, €94 million would buy a fair few Klebersons, Verons and Djemba-Djembas.
Other than that, though, there was a bit of a collective shrug from the folk ambling past Old Trafford, most of whom had Sky microphones trust in their faces.
“Good riddance,” said one.
“We don’t want players here who don’t want to stay,” said another.
“It was quite obvious watching him play this season that his heart wasn’t in it,” said another other.
“If he doesn’t want to stay let him go – he’s gone, thank God,” said a woman who, you reckoned, would have paid €94 million just to see the back of the fella.
That’s the thing. He might have been more than useful in his spell with the club, but, from the day he arrived, Ronaldo showed as much commitment, loyalty and affection to United and their supporters as Zsa-Zsa Gabor did to marriage.
Ask her nine husbands.
True, the bulk of today’s megastars have egos that are beyond measurable, but this lad took the biscuit. Witness the scene at the end of the 2008 Champions League final, when Edwin van der Sar’s penalty shoot-out save from Nicolas Anelka won the cup.
The team, as one, sprinted from the half-way line to mob the goalkeeper, but Ronaldo stayed where he was, choosing to separate himself from his team-mates, dropping to his knees in a tear-burst of, um, emotion, all the while keeping an eye on the large screen in the stadium to make sure he was the focus of attention.
Even at so joyous a moment in the club’s history it was still all about Him, his ego so comically inflated – and Ferguson did much of the pumping – it was clear United meant as much to him as his Bentley convertible. Just another dispensable pit-stop on this particular circus tour.
When Eric Cantona retired the supporters were inconsolable. The same when Roy Keane moved on. The sales of Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and David Beckham were greeted with dismay, Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince’s departures resulted in more than a few tear-stained pillows.
Ronaldo? Not the same. A more than splendid cameo in the club’s history – his goals tally is astonishing – but a cameo is all it was. Old Trafford was only ever going to be a stop-over on this ego-trip.
True, they sang his name, but rarely with the same affection as they laud Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs or Nemanja Vidic, players, they sense, who genuinely feel honoured to play for the club. (Although Vidic’s complaints about life in Manchester suggest he might be following Cristiano to Spain any day soon.)
Most of Ronaldo’s devotees were either under-12 or grown-ups deluded enough to believe, (a) he loved the club and, (b) he deserved a place among the United greats, eg, Best, Law, Charlton, Robson, Cantona and Keane, simply because, between the dives, he bamboozled full backs and scored heaps of goals.
Takes more than that. Best, Law, Charlton, Robson, Cantona and Keane had one thing in common: they acknowledged they were blessed to play for United; Ronaldo believed United were blessed to have him.
And that’s pretty much why Sky was greeted by indifferent shrugs. There was never any emotional attachment to Ronaldo, because he had no emotional attachment to the club. The supporters enjoyed his stay, immensely, his talent and ability to thrill was undisputed. He’s not even close to his prime, and when he gets there Real will be the beneficiaries. In that sense United – true, for a mighty fee – have had done unto them what they have habitually done unto others (a big hello from Everton, Rooney’s nursery club).
But, to be honest, good riddance. Ferguson is now in to the last season or three of his career and he could do without having to cope with the Ego-in-Chief. Frankly, life’s too short. And with a bit of luck he will finally realise he already has on his books a superior player. All he has to do, now the circus has moved on, is play him in his right position.
Rooney, that is. If he had been sold yesterday Sky couldn’t have found enough counsellors to cope with the grief. True love.
Ronaldo? Adios.
