‘Never that guy’ – Why Man Utd made right call in Cristiano Ronaldo release as Gordon Strachan explains detrimental impact of all-time great

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner made a sensational return to Old Trafford in the summer of 2021. He was gone less than 18 months later, with the decision taken to rip up his contract. Questions have been asked of whether United now regret that decision, as they struggle for consistency, but an obvious distraction has been removed from their ranks.

Former United star Strachan, speaking to sales CRM software sweep.io, has said of releasing Ronaldo as a free agent: “It was definitely time for him to go; he'd made a few grumbles about being there and a few other things. Whatever you think, he was past his best as well. He can still score goals, that's fine. It was to the detriment of Manchester United that you're trying to pack a team around a 38-year-old. I had that when I was at Leeds when I was 35 and Howard Wilkinson made the decision to change the team and had to look to the future. I was a bit grumbly as I felt I could do a job, but I understood because you have to do that to be a manager. You cannot be reliant on players who are that far advanced in their age and build a team around them.

“Liverpool have got far better this season because they have far more energy in midfield than they did in the last two seasons. Four or five seasons ago, every team in the Premier League was wary of playing Liverpool because they were too much. That changed over the last few years because of the drop in energy in midfield. Ronaldo was never that guy who closed opposition teams down, even at Real Madrid. They would have seven players behind the ball whilst Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema stayed up front and didn't track back. That was 10 years ago.”

United agreed to part with Ronaldo after seeing him criticise prominent figures from the club’s past and present during an explosive interview. He had hit 27 goals during his second spell in England, but Erik ten Hag decided that the all-time great was more of a hindrance than a help.

Ronaldo has shown those at Old Trafford that he is far from being a spent force, with a world-leading 54 goals recorded for Al-Nassr and Portugal over the course of 2023. He is showing no sign of slowing down at the age of 38 and would appear to have many more domestic and international campaigns left in him.