Former striker Shaun Goater has claimed that the club tricked into signing .
Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo re-joined United from last summer in a transfer that was triggered after it was reported that local rivals City were in talks to sign the former Red Devils forward instead.
Initially viewed as a major coup for United, Ronaldo’s second spell at Old Trafford has been a mixed bag so far, as while the 37-year-old has scored 18 goals in 32 games in all competitions, the team on the whole has regressed, failing to win silverware for a fifth consecutive campaign and looking increasingly unlikely to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Many are now wondering whether it was a mistake to bring the Portuguese captain back and speculation has begun as to how long Ronaldo will stay in England amid rumours all is not well inside the United dressing room.
Goater, speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes ahead of the launch of their 5-A-Side bet on Man City v Liverpool, has gone one step further though, claiming that the news linking Ronaldo to City was a ploy to fool United into making the transfer.
‘I’ve got to be honest, I never thought Cristiano Ronaldo’s return was going to be a great thing for Manchester United,’ Goater said.
‘I knew he’d score goals, but I also knew that he’d take away from the shine of the future, and the youngsters they have. I didn’t think the rest of the team would score goals as a direct result of him signing; someone was going to suffer.
‘That balance had to work, and I don’t think it has. If Ronaldo was told ‘look, use your experience, you’re obviously a key player and you’re going to have plenty of game-time, but a key part of this project is these young players coming through’, then it might have been a different story. But, as we can see, Marcus Rashford has gone off the boil, and I think it’s because he’s lost a lot of belief; he’s just sort of been left to figure it out.’
Rashford hasn’t been the only United attacker to suffer from Ronaldo’s arrival, with Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani and new signing Jadon Sancho all enduring a difficult campaign, while City are once again leading the Premier League and still in contention to win the Champions League and FA Cup.
Goater, who scored 84 goals for City between 1998 and 2003, added: ‘When I saw that news break that he’d signed for them, as a Man City fan, I thought it was good for us. I don’t think City were ever really going to sign Ronaldo. Pep’s teams play the way they play because it’s about the team, not about the individual – and so I truly don’t think it would have ever worked.
‘It could be a really smart chess move from City, who have already thought a few steps ahead, maybe with one eye on the next summer transfer window, and by forcing United’s hand into signing Ronaldo, it’s likely to be one less team who are going to go after a striker this summer.
‘I’ve been around the club long enough to know that they hardly ever get these decisions wrong. Whether that’s on the pitch or off it, they have experts across all areas, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if City are making chess moves here that no one else has even thought of.’
Goater could well be onto something here, with City heavily linked with signing either Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur or Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland in the summer, two world-class strikers that United were previously targeting but now seem highly unlikely to sign.
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