Former Manchester United player Wayne Rooney believes that forward Cristiano Ronaldo should part ways with the club if the Red Devils want to build a successful team for the future under new manager Erik ten Hag. Rooney justified his opinion by addressing the fact that Manchester United is still far away from pushing for the title and hence CR7 doesn’t fit in the club’s timeline.
Wayne Rooney wrote, “I think United should let Cristiano Ronaldo go. It’s not that Ronaldo can’t play in a Ten Hag team. He can play in any team. Ronny will always score you goals. But my personal view is that United aren’t ready to challenge for the title now, so the aim has to be to build a team that can win the league in the next three to four years, and you have to plan for that.”
Manchester United’s leading goal scorer also opened up about the biggest challenge the club faced under Ralf Rangnick and how Ten Hag has been working on it on day to day basis. He expressed: “I was at Carrington at the start of United’s pre-season, speaking to a few of the players and Steve McClaren. I know one thing Ten Hag has tried to change is the day-to-day environment, and that has been a real positive for everyone. When Ralf Rangnick was in charge a lot of the players found it difficult to come to terms with the lack of structure to the week and Ten Hag has addressed this.”
Rooney then talked about the condition of Manchester United last season where they had one of the worst results in their history. He pointed out how players weren’t looking happy and didn’t look like a cohesive unit. He said: “Watching them last season was difficult at times. The big thing which stood out was that they did not look enough of a team.”
“The players did not look happy on the pitch. They seemed like a bunch of individuals. Often I couldn’t work out what they were trying to do in terms of game plan, or see any patterns of play. I think one of the big things you’ll see from Ten Hag is him really trying to put his stamp on the playing identity.”
