The Glazer family has made mistakes aplenty in the last 17 years and it made another in the summer: Cristiano Ronaldo didn't want Manchester United anymore and Manchester United's manager didn't want Cristiano Ronaldo. Joel Glazer did.
Erik ten Hag was open to selling Ronaldo as far back as July but Glazer resisted a possible sale. That stance from United's co-owner, coupled with a lack of appropriate offers for Ronaldo, ensured Portugal's captain remained a United player on September 1.
The broken marriage was clearly never going to be fixed, though, and divorce was confirmed on Tuesday night. United are keeping the kids.
Read more: United could be sold by Glazers
Erik ten Hag has favoured youthful attackers since arriving in M16 and a bit-part role was never going to satiate the game's great egotist. Ronaldo has earned the right to have an ego with his contributions to football over the last 16 years but time waits for no man and his time at the top is running out.
It would be naïve to say Ronaldo no longer has anything to offer at the top level but it's been clear for some time that Ten Hag fancies something else on the menu. Marcus Rashford opened his World Cup account on Monday and it is thanks in no small part to Ten Hag that he is even in Qatar after three years of befuddling mediocrity.
Ten Hag has revived Rashford, scorer of five goals last season and nine already this, and he is not alone in showing clear signs of development under United's most progressive coach since Sir Alex Ferguson.
Anthony Martial's brittleness has restricted the Frenchman's impact and the three injuries he has nursed this season are concerning, but when Martial has figured he has been a far more suitable spearhead than Ronaldo, able to interchange effectively with United's other fluid forwards like Rashford, Jadon Sancho and the Brazilian Antony.
News of Ronaldo's interview with the sycophantic Piers Morgan emerged on the same day Alejandro Garnacho announced himself to the Premier League with United's injury-time winner at Craven Cottage. Garnacho is the future for United and Ten Hag's project is a long-term one that Ronaldo never had any intention of being a part of.
Of the forwards that remain at United, only Martial and Rashford are older than 22, and with Ronaldo's exit following on from the summer departures of 30-somethings Nemanja Matic, Edinson Cavani, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard, it is clear that Ten Hag wants to refresh his squad.
United may have signed Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, both 30, but unlike Ronaldo, Matic, Cavani, Mata and Lingard, both men remain at the peak of their powers.
A new striker was always going to be at the top of United's agenda next summer but they may now have to bring forward that priority to January. With Ronaldo's wages off the books and Martial the only remaining senior striker in his squad, Ten Hag can make a compelling case to be backed to the hilt in January.
United's rebuild is about to move into its next phase.
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