Graeme Souness believes Cristiano Ronaldo deserves 'particular consideration' for his refusal to come on as a substitute.
The Manchester United striker went down the tunnel early during United's 2-0 win at home to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, with the 37-year-old deciding against joining his teammates and fans for post-match celebrations. Erik Ten Hag subsequently fined his player two-weeks wages, ordered him to train with the under-21s and omitted him from the matchday squad to face Chelsea yesterday.
Such a decision was a bold show of discipline from Ten Hag, but it has caused a stir, with former teammates Roy Keane and Gary Neville exchanging heated words after the game at Stamford Bridge. And former Liverpool man Souness believes that a player with Ronaldo's stature should be treated with special dispensation.
"It’s a desperately sad situation that Cristiano Ronaldo finds himself in," Souness wrote in his Daily Mail column. "Here is a player who has taken Manchester United to the heights and scored goals for them which will live long in the memory — yet look what that club have reduced him to.
"What we saw at Old Trafford when the team played Tottenham on Wednesday night was a player plainly angry, upset and deeply frustrated — stuck on a substitutes’ bench while players he will rightly consider himself superior to were out on the field."
He continued: "For Ronaldo to have refused to come on to the pitch when requested by Ten Hag is clearly something the manager cannot accept. Such a fundamental breach of the team ethic is the first step on a road to ruin.
"But it is not hard to imagine how the conversation went between the two of them when changes were being made and he was asked to go on after 87 minutes, to run down the clock. A three-minute role at the dog-end of a 2-0 win is an indignity that this player will not have expected to be reduced to.
"Every player must be ready to play, however great or small the role, but I do think there has to be particular consideration for Ronaldo, given his position in the game and his contribution to it.
"If this continues, United will end up destroying Ronaldo’s legacy. The least the club owe him is not to allow that to happen. To stop putting him through this."
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