Cristiano Ronaldo was not the problem at Manchester United last season but has become a problem since pre-season.
Ronaldo has always come with more baggage than a Kardashian and his sullen departure down the tunnel before full-time on Wednesday night was typical of a man with an ego the size of a planet.
He has form for dugout drama. In December 2008, Ronaldo grimaced and self-substituted himself with United goalless against Sunderland. The following evening, he was painless and smiling in Paris as he clutched the Ballon d'Or.
READ MORE: Man United drop Cristiano Ronaldo from squad vs Chelsea
In Ronaldo's penultimate appearance at Old Trafford prior to joining Real Madrid in 2009 against Manchester City, he was withdrawn by Sir Alex Ferguson early in the second-half. Ronaldo swiped at a tracksuit top the kit man Alec Wylie had held out for him.
Allowances can be made for greatness and Ronaldo is the game's greatest. But he misread the room against Tottenham. United produced their best performance in five-and-a-half years.
Unlike under Ferguson, their number seven is now expendable. Ferguson, a surrogate father to Ronaldo, must grudgingly admire Erik ten Hag's handling of his star player's transgression.
With authority restored to the United manager's role with Ten Hag, the player-power era is well and truly over. You cannot imagine Ten Hag, a renowned disciplinarian in the Netherlands, pandering as subserviently to Paul Pogba as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did.
United fully back Ten Hag's decision to drop Ronaldo from the squad against Chelsea on Saturday and his insistence on discipline. That is a welcome departure from the starstruck Ed Woodward era when Jose Mourinho was undermined and replaced by a substitute teacher.
Ten Hag's childhood friend, Leon ten Voorde, told this correspondent in April "one of his qualities is managing a dressing room. He can also handle the so-called difficult characters". Characters do not come any more difficult - or bigger - than Ronaldo.
From their first brusque public exchange during the friendly draw with Rayo Vallecano in July, Ten Hag and Ronaldo's alliance has been uneasy. Ronaldo evidently did not expect to be managed by Ten Hag beyond the transfer deadline.
Ronaldo's "interview in two weeks" he promised in mid-August is overdue by nearly two months. That Instagram comment was posted amid the confidence he would be playing for a Champions League team.
Instead, Ronaldo is marooned in Manchester and in danger of becoming an irrelevance at the club whose stadium has a suite that doubles as a shrine of Ronaldo. United have played their best football and achieved their best results without Ronaldo under Ten Hag.
Ten Hag has almost obsequiously supported Ronaldo, refusing to single him out for his early departure against Vallecano, the illogical rationale for leaving him on the bench in the derby earlier this month, and the exaggerated applause as Ronaldo trudged off with 20 minutes to play and the game deadlocked against Newcastle.
On Wednesday night, the allowances expired. In explaining Marcus Rashford's recall, Ten Hag effectively outlined why Ronaldo was dropped.
The ends justify the means. Rashford is never a centre forward and he has still not scored from the role this term, but his positioning there has helped Ten Hag claim the scalps of Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham.
Ronaldo has not recovered from missing the pre-season tour due to a personal matter. Ten Hag settled on a fluid front three of Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jadon Sancho from Bangkok to Perth and that blueprint has paid dividends despite the brittle Martial's three separate lay-offs.
Anthony Elanga started ahead of Ronaldo in the spirited defeat of Liverpool, the left-footed Antony has balanced a lopsided attack and Rashford already has as many goals as last season.
Ronaldo's personal matter is believed to have been genuine but Ronaldo's plan of attack to engineer a transfer was disruptive and disrespectful. His representatives leaked the story that Ronaldo wished to leave less than 48 hours prior to his expected return for pre-season training. To nobody's surprise, Ronaldo did not turn up.
On the first day United were due back at Carrington after touching down from their tour of Australia, Ronaldo passed the security barriers with his agent, Jorge Mendes, riding shotgun.
It is not difficult to join the dots and another recent report detailing Ronaldo's reservations about Ten Hag's tactics emerged from the same source. Ten Hag is not a mug.
Ten Hag was open to letting Ronaldo leave in the summer, although the United co-chairman Joel Glazer was reluctant. The reality is Ronaldo had one concrete offer from a club in Saudi Arabia he never entertained.
Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Sporting Lisbon, Napoli and AC Milan were all offered Ronaldo and all passed on him. One of the game's hardest workers has become a hard sell.
Respect for Ronaldo within the United dressing room is so immense there is little to no chance of them turning against him. The young players idolise Ronaldo and several senior teammates - both British and overseas - are in awe of his professionalism.
They will not train with Ronaldo on Friday or on Sunday when those who start at Chelsea report for recovery sessions. It will be busier than usual outside Carrington on Monday.
United matchgoers will still serenade Ronaldo, for many the finest player they have seen in red, although Stamford Bridge may be too soon. They will always have last season's last hurrah.
The United dressing room is not as sulphurous after certain summer departures and the peculiar power struggle between Ronaldo and captain Harry Maguire has been expertly neutered by Ten Hag, who dropped both players in August.
It is in the interests of player and club for Mendes to find Ronaldo an exit route in January. He was not a problem last season when he saved Solskjaer's skin for a few more weeks, glossed Ralf Rangnick's reign and claimed the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award. But with an authoritarian back in the manager's office, Ronaldo has encountered a problem.
And Ten Hag has eliminated the problem.
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