Cristiano Ronaldo remains a hot topic of discussion like he has been for much of the summer.
The 37-year-old forward has made it clear that he wants out of Old Trafford and feels he should instead be playing for a team competing in the Champions League. He still has another 12 months left to run on the two-year deal he signed 12 months ago but it’s clear he doesn’t want to see this final year out and his attitude has come into question across United’s opening two league defeats of the campaign.
But while Ronaldo believes he’s worthy of a move elsewhere this summer, alternative offers from other clubs have been in short supply. Multiple pundits have weighed in on the subject, the latest of which was Sky Sports' Paul Merson who this week stated he believed that Premier League rivals Chelsea should consider a move for the Portuguese star.
“Chelsea need a centre-forward, you’ve got two of the best wing-backs in the world of football, maybe even three with Cucurella coming in," Merson said. "They play so far up the pitch, it’s not like Man United when you’re on the halfway line, you play at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea kick-off and everyone stands on the edge of their box.
“The amount of times Chelsea’s wing-backs get the ball down the side, if you whip that ball in for Ronaldo, he ain’t got to run anywhere, he ain’t got to run from the half-way line and beat three players - put the ball in the box."
Merson added: "You’re talking about one of the best finishers in the world, you don’t get 700, 800 goals if you can’t finish and he doesn’t have to do a lot of running. I just think it ticks the box for me, it’s a no brainer.”
While there’s fair logic to some of the points raised by Merson, there are doubts about whether Ronaldo is still one of the best finishers in the world. He did score 23 goals last season across all competitions; however, he benefited from being given the freedom to shoot from just about anywhere and everywhere he wanted.
This point is captured by the fact that of all the Premier League players who scored five or more league goals last season, he ranked only behind Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in terms of attempting the highest number of shots on goal per 90 (3.63).
There were actually 39 players from that same group who had a better on-target percentage from their shots than the United forward, and he ranked 31st of that group in terms of his goal conversion rate which was just 16.82 per cent.
It’s probably therefore fair to say that at this stage of his career, Ronaldo isn’t the elite finisher he once was. Instead, he’s a player who’ll score goals when given plenty of opportunities to do so.
Obviously, this means he still could be a success at a team dominant team like Chelsea, however they’ve already snubbed the chance to sign him earlier in the summer when he was offered to new Blues co-owner Todd Boehly by agent Jorge Mendes.
The London club are unlikely to u-turn on that decision, and nor could you blame them for not doing so.
