Manchester United produced their best performance of the season on Wednesday evening, as they defeated top-four rivals Tottenham 2-0 at Old Trafford.
All the headlines should have subsequently been about Erik ten Hag's improving side. But they're not. Instead, they're about Cristiano Ronaldo.
He may be one of the greatest footballers of all time, but he's no longer the player he once was and is struggling to get into United's starting XI. That reality was hard for Ronaldo to take on Wednesday evening. He stormed down the tunnel before full-time and Ten Hag has promised to "deal" with the player's actions. It's fair to say pundits have responded interestingly to the fiasco since it unfolded...
Jamie O'Hara and Jason Cundy
"It's a disgrace," O'Hara told talkSPORT on Wednesday. "The best performance of the season from Man Utd so far, and Ronaldo walks off down the tunnel? And the tunnel is not right by the dugout - you've got to walk the length of the pitch."
He added: "It's not good enough. How disrespectful is that to your teammates?"
O'Hara's talkSPORT colleague Cundy noted: "It's all for show... so you asked me why I wouldn't take Ronaldo [at Chelsea ]. Do you remember that? The conversation?
"I wouldn't take him for the baggage. He is a brilliant footballer, he'll score goals - but that's the reason [why I don't want Chelsea to sign him]. Ten Hag has still got a problem here - January can't come quick enough to Ten Hag to move him on. He wants to move.
"There's petulance... what does that do to other players? No doubt he's a brilliant influence in the dressing room to young kids - privately, I'm guessing he is because he's a brilliant pro - but that, the petulance shown publicly, that's not on."
What did you make of Cristiano Ronaldo's actions? Let us know in the comments below!
Rio Ferdinand
"My only thought could be that Cristiano Ronaldo is being saved for the weekend against Chelsea," Ferdinand told Vibe with Five on Wednesday. "That's the only way I see it... He didn't play today - and I think Ronaldo will be absolutely fuming with that naturally.
"I wouldn't expect anything different from him. I think the big problem that Erik ten Hag has got is that, coming up to this next window, he has to think very carefully what he does. If he doesn’t see Cristiano Ronaldo as a starter in his team more often than not, he has to release him from the contract, let him go.
"It’s not fair on anybody, on Cristiano, on Erik ten Hag, or the players, if after every game the first question is 'why didn’t Cristiano start' and that’s the story. Man Utd have won 2-0 today and one of the leading stories is about Ronaldo. That isn't right.
"You sit here and think, 'Why did Man Utd just not let him go then?' Especially if Ten Hag kind of knew he wasn't going to be his main player. That's the baffling part for me because you think what he's done in his career at his level.
"The manager would have surely known before the season started 'I'm not really going to play Ronaldo. Is he really what I want in my team? Is he the future of what I'm building?' It looks to me right now like he erred on the side of no. If that's the case, I feel he should have let him go. It’s going to be something which probably hampers him [Ten Hag] going forward."
Neil Warnock
"There's two or three things, really," Warnock told talkSPORT on Thursday. "If it wasn't Ronaldo, I'd be tempted to say to his peers, 'Look, he's got to go in January. Can I let him go now? Can I send him home to Portugal now? And we'll get on with what we've got'.
"I think actually helped Ten Hag - him doing that - because now he's [Ten Hag] got sympathy and whatever he does [regarding Ronaldo's future], he can't go wrong now. So, I think it was good for the manager.
"Anybody but Ronaldo, I would've let him go home. I wouldn't have talked to him last night, me, I wouldn't have said a word. I would've gone in and praised the lads at how good they were and [say], 'This is how we've got to be'.
"I would've probably just flippantly said to Ronaldo, 'I'll see you in the morning at 10' - if it's his day off, hopefully, so it ruins his day off. That's what I would've done."
Gabby Logan, Patrice Evra and Thierry Henry
"There was a game, a magnificent game for Manchester United," Henry told Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday. "The story shouldn't be of Ronaldo walking off."
Evra then added: "I don't want to find any excuse. I want to be focused more on the performance of Manchester United. I want to stop talking every day about Cristiano."
To which Logan asked: "What do you do as a manager in that situation. Should [Ten Hag] have intervened? Should he have told him to stay where he was? But he [Ronaldo] makes it [the story], though. In terms of him doing that, he doesn't have to do that, does he?"
After Evra defended Ronaldo again, Logan added: "I guess if he'd stayed sat on his seat, we wouldn't be talking about him."
Alan Shearer
"I understand his frustrations of not being able to get on the pitch but when you look at the bigger picture, his team have put on a really good performance tonight," Shearer told Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday.
"The manager had a big call to make in leaving him out and it turned out to be the right decision because they have done everything right. It’s a difficult situation because you are talking about the best player in the world and the best player we have ever seen so it makes things difficult for the manager.
"He is going to get asked about that now in the press conference when he should be asked about every one of his players on the pitch tonight because they have all been impressive."
Gabby Agbonlahor
"Ronaldo, he's a spoilt brat - let's be honest," Agbonlahor told talkSPORT on Wednesday. "He's 37. He's had the best career, probably one of the best players to ever play the game. Your team that you're meant to love, Manchester United, have played their best football that they've played in years - absolutely battered Spurs... they've played better without him.
"Ronaldo came on against Everton and did well, scored a goal. Then he starts against Newcastle and was poor - got taken off, has a huff. I rate Ten Hag for not feeling pressured to play Ronaldo, [he's] strong handed.
"To walk down the tunnel like that, for me, is a disgrace... It happened at Villa [when I was a player], a player called Carles Gil. He didn't get on - [manager] Tim Sherwood used all the subs - and we scored a winner and he walked down the tunnel and went home.
"You can't do that. It's so disrespectful to your teammates and if I'm the players in that changing room with Ronaldo after the game and find out about it, I want my manager to make a statement - I would leave Ronaldo out of the Chelsea game."
Agbonlahor added: "It's disrespectful, though, they want to [see him say] like, 'What's your treatment to Ronaldo?' Are you going to put your foot down and say, 'You can't do this, Cristiano'. Yes, one of the best ever players - 700 goals - but you can't disrespect your teammates and leave the game. He's made it about him."
Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Ashley Williams
"We all know what a great player he has been and stuff like that," said Lineker on Wednesday's Match of the Day. "But walking off the pitch as a substitute with two minutes to go before the game is finished - I'm sorry, I mean that's unacceptable. That's poor, isn't it?"
Richards replied: "It's so poor. For someone who we've looked up to for so long, one of the greats of the game, to do that when your team are winning, making it about him, he shouldn't. Unacceptable."
Williams added: "I think it's disappointing really. It's a great night for Manchester United and here we are talking about Ronaldo, again, who didn't actually play."
Dion Dublin and Tim Sherwood
Dublin told Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday: "I’d probably want to get him around the throat and say, 'What are you doing?'
"It’s out of order. I love Ronaldo, I've got a lot of respect for him. I think he should be getting more minutes and think he can make a difference more than most. However, the game’s still going on, your team-mates are still playing. It basically says, 'I don’t really care'.
"For me in the dressing room it says 'I’m off' and 'I don’t really care about my teammates'. I know he does and I know he’s passionate for playing for Man United, but tonight I think he’s massively in the wrong.
"Myself and Tim are very old school about this. We have very strong values about togetherness and how we would deal with it in the dressing room would be very different to how they deal with it now, however, I don’t like a lack of respect for your teammates."
Sherwood added: "I think it’s quite shocking. Ten Hag made all his changes and Ronaldo has just gone down the tunnel. It’s a public show of dissent against the manager. It’s not a good look, in my opinion. I’m quite angry about it.
"I love Ronaldo but I think there are ways you go about it. He (Ten Hag) talked about in the Manchester derby about not putting him on the pitch because he wanted to show him respect, and I feel Ronaldo’s shown him a lack of disrespect by walking down the tunnel."
