Cristiano Ronaldo was quizzed about Manchester United’s struggles following their 2-0 loss at Wolves but the Portuguese superstar refused to blame boss Ruben Amorim – instead pointing to the club’s entire infrastructure
Cristiano Ronaldo has claimed he could fix Manchester United’s problems himself if he owned the club – and said their issues go far beyond Ruben Amorim.
Ronaldo had two spells at Old Trafford but finished his second one on bad terms in 2022 after being exiled by Erik ten Hag and accusing the club of “betraying him”.
The Portuguese superstar – who is now with Saudi outfit Al-Nassr – was speaking after being named as the best Middle East player at the Global Soccer Awards and was quizzed about United’s struggles following their 2-0 loss at Wolves.
Amorim arrived last month to replace Erik ten Hag but has overseen five defeats in his first ten matches, leaving the team in 14th place. The players do not look to be responding to his methods as of yet but Ronaldo believes his ex-Portugal team-mate is not to blame.
Ronaldo – who played a total of 346 games for United, scoring 145 times – believes United’s problems are widespread and pointed to the entire infrastructure that needed revamping from top to bottom.
“If I will be the owner of the club, I will make things clear and adjust things that are bad there,” he said at the ceremony. They need, I said this one year and a half ago, and I will continue to say it: The problem is not the coaches.
“I always give this example… it’s like an aquarium. If you have the fish inside and he’s sick and you take him out and you fix the problem and you put him again in an aquarium you will be sick again. The problem of Manchester United is the same. The problem is not always the coach. It’s much more than that.”
It has been widely reported that Ronaldo was unhappy with the facilities at United’s Carrington training ground, with the club refurbishing their swimming pool area after the ex-Real Madrid man complained about it on his return to the club in 2021.
Ronaldo also voiced concerns over loose, chipped and missing tiles by the pool area and was shocked that it hadn’t changed since he was last there in 2009. He even made an appearance at a local luxury health club, combining it with sessions at Carrington amid his concerns over the state of the facilities.
It comes after Sir Jim Ratcliffe took over football operations at the start of the year and made a number of radical changes – including cost-cutting measures that saw 25 per cent of the workforce slashed.
The billionaire also revamped the club’s hierarchy as he brought in Omar Berrada from Manchester City as CEO, while Jason Wilcox arrived as technical director. Dan Ashworth also came in as sporting director – but he has already left just five months into his role.
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