The problem when you sign Cristiano Ronaldo is that, no matter how big a club you are, his gravitational pull is greater. Everything revolves around him, and he is not, it’s fair to say, somebody much inclined to seeing the bigger picture. And so it is that Manchester United, having won at Fulham with a late goal, heading into the World Cup break reflecting not on how much everything has improved under Erik ten Hag nor on how the club at last might be on an upward trajectory, but on an interview Ronaldo gave to Piers Morgan.
United had not played especially well at Fulham, but it had won with a last-minute winner from Alejandro Garnacho. In February 2007, United also won 2–1 at Fulham with a late goal from a brilliant young winger in Ronaldo but scarcely had the comparisons between Garnacho and Ronaldo begun to be made when news broke of the great meeting of self-serving narcissists on Talk TV.
Ronaldo said he felt “betrayed” by the club. This is the Ronaldo, of course, who spent the summer trying to force a move to somewhere where he could play Champions League football and improve his already extraordinary goal-scoring record in the competition.
