Aug 07
Ronaldo Speaks… Finally
About time, innit? I think this was nearly a good month and a half late, but it did come. Of course, it could be said that he knew, by now, there was no way of moving to Real Madrid and he had to lay it bare some time. However, what he did say here was quite easily the most interesting interview he’s ever given.
This is what I wanted to hear in the beginning. I never demanded loyalty from Ronaldo. I always knew he wanted to move to Real Madrid, but it was the manner in which he handled the situation that I was concerned about. And let’s get this out of the way first: he didn’t handle it well (and I am making the biggest of understatements.)
But his interview surprised a lot of us with his honesty. Whilst there is a good chance that his PR might be working really hard at mending broken bridges with the fans, a lot of the stuff he said seemed rather spontaneous.
The admission of guilt would stand out among the more prominent of his quotes. But what caught my attention was this:
People have to understand one thing: at the age of 18 I arrived at a dream club like Manchester United. It was a dream come true. But, even at that moment, I was thinking about playing in England for some years and then going to play in Spain. Even at that time I was thinking that way, and I always gave 100% everything. Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do. I said exactly what I thought: I have a dream of playing at Real and I thought it was time to move on. People can’t be upset about me fulfilling a childhood dream.
In a world of badge kissing and players expounding their love for one club before turning their back, this came as a breath of fresh air. He admitted to using United as a sort of a stepping stone and I applaud his honesty. I never expected loyalty as I’ve mentioned countless times earlier, but at least there is some consistency. The interview is full of juicy quotes so I urge you all to read it in it’s entirety.
But is this enough to change my opinion of him?
The answer to that is no. It’s easier to say it now, but I was prepared to hear similar remarks of arse-licking once it became rather apparent that he was going to stay for another season at least. An interview like this can’t change the summer of hurt. Whilst his remarks now are welcome, they have come very late. During this period, a lot of us have been dragged through what should have been a memorable summer.
He will show his commitment on the pitch — of that I have little doubt. But he needs to show the desire to fight for the shirt — not his desire to fight for Ronaldo and Ronaldo alone. I could be asking too much here, but I am not going to let an interview change my opinion of him overnight. I won’t boo him, because I don’t think that’s right. But I won’t love him like I love some other players. I have become a complete Rio Ferdinand fan but that was from the way he has conducted himself over the past couple of seasons. And it’s a sum of tangibles and intangibles that will help him earn my respect.
It’s a pity such a phenomenal player would struggle to become a United legend. I will reserve my judgement on Ronaldo indefinitely. I’ve said this previously and I will continue to stand by it: it will still take Ronaldo a Herculean effort to win my respect — like it even matters to him. But since some people were curious to know what I thought, I decided to document my thoughts once again.
At the moment, Ronaldo’s short term future is secure before Madrid’s sharks come a-circling in 2009. Meanwhile, our side is teeming with very promising Brazilians (Anderson, Possebon, Rafael and Fabio). What are the chances that one of them begin to start throwing cursive glances at Spain in about a couple of years?
Related items from Red Rants:
- Featured Video: Ronaldo – A Mini-Documentary
- Wenger Speaks Sense As Platini Loses his Mind
- Sunday Roundup: Heinze Speaks Finally
- Ferguson Speaks as he Returns to Old Trafford
- Cantona: Domenech’s the worst coach since Louis XVI
Tags: Manchester United News
Craig Mc (195)
RedDevilEddy (170)
Opti (135)
Moscow is my heaven (96)
Ian (95)
@edi: yeah, that would be great.. imagine if we could win the ‘septuple’ this season? We’ll go down in the history books!!!
boy, i can’t contain myself, just thinkin about the possibilities… scratch what I said before, let’s also get that young winger I was advocating for earlier, he’ll be pretty useful this season and for the future as we don’t have any promising youngsters in our reserves/academy!!!
Can’t wait till the season begins
this is what i’ve been waiting for all summer, i’m so excited!!!
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@dan(u-ol): He can be a little wasteful but what I love about him is his goal scoring instinct and desire. He can get 10 shots at goal in a game. So he only scores on two of them, Tevez and Rooney would take five games to get that many shots at goal. We need a goal hungry forward with courage and determination to score, and not waste his time playing footsie with the midfielders and smelling flowers by the corner flag. We have the most unaggressive forwards in all of football. They are high on style, technique,, effort but very low in substance. bottom line is they don’t score enough goals (an adequate amount) and they don’t shoot the ball enough. I like forwards that are brash, cocky and confident and who have a lust to score goals.
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@Grognard: Hmm! Well why not have a person with an angelic first touch? Who is tall! Can score some crackers as well!
Reminds me of someone!!!
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@Craig Mc: I’ll bet poor old Wes is having second thoughts about signing that contract now eh? He has earned that spot and it should take much more than a pre season for either Da Silva to take that position from him.
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@gator: just because he scored on his right, doesnt mean he is a right footer…
@Grognard: alright grognard fair enough, but i dont think he would fit into our system, we need a striker that fits, that will blend in straight away. we have a system that won us the PL and the CL, why break it? why not just build on it? huntelaar would break it, berbatov could improve it.
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Grog, it won’t happen. Those kids have no European of real PL experience. They might get bit parts, but like Lou Macari said, getting a regular start in the first team is a a good while off for them.
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@Grognard: Wes ain’t panicking, the guy is da bomb!! he might not be the best overlapper, but he is solid as a rock when it comes to defending. People seeem to forget the guy is one of the four reasons our defence was so watertight last season.
I think he is a better RB than he is a CB, cuz he does have those ocassional lapses, but he can get away with them as a RB. if anything, it’s Nevler that’s gonna struggle gettin into the 1st team, and we’ll see it tomorrow…
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in other news, the mirror claims that ferdinand will be the next england skipper, good on him, i think he should be the united skipper to.
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@dan(u-ol): actually both twins are right-footed, but Fabio prefers and thrives on the left… anyway, they’re both gonna get their fare share of games this season, as we will be challenging on seven fronts this season, and I hope we win everyone of them
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@dan(u-ol)
yeah Id love Ferdinand to lead England. Not that Total lack of bottle Terry
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I can’t bloody believe it!. Fergie is reported to have launched a 20 million pound bid for Thierry Henry, after talks for Berbatov have collapsed because of United’s and Spurs deteriorating relationship and open warfare about us supposed to have been tapping Berbatov. Even though news from the prem league/FA is that United will have no case to answer. I am very depressed at even the thought of United paying 20million for Henry, we’ll be the laughing stock. Henry is 31 yrs old the day we play Newcastle. When we could buy Eto’o a younger and longer lasting player, to pay 20 million for Henry is feckin obscene. Now I am depressed, because if this is true, I cannot understand Fergie.
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@Craig Mc: where did you see that, any links?
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On News Now site, This is London.
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Gabriel, This is London, are they reputable do you know, or another Bullshit of a site for correct news.
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@Craig Mc: WOW, these journo’s can really cook up a story, can’t they? Anyway, if it is true, I can only fathom one explanation, he is going to be a buffer for our capture of Benzema nxt season. He’s 31 and will only add experience to the side, maybe even redeem that winger necessity we have (he can play on the wings too). Honestly, he wouldn’t be a bad buy, but for 20mil, they’re havin a laugh.. besides, the possibilities of him coming are slim; I don’t see him coming back to the premiership to be 3rd-choice…
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@Craig Mc: It’s a report from the Daily Mail and to be honest, they are full of Bull. They constantly make stuff up. If you don’t see it in the BBC or the Guardian it’s not happening. The Sun and the rest just crap sites. Full of tall tales.
I just forgave Ronaldo after what he did. I don’t know if I would be able to forgive Fergie if he signed my least favorite player old Thierry Alien Head himself. Oh God, I would just puke over that possibility. That’s like tossing pepper on a strawberry sundae. It just doesn’t go and it will make you sick. Henry and Vieira are the twin Antichrist’s for me. I hate them even more than Drogba and Terry and that hatred is pretty fucking large. Christ, if that happened I would just die. It would be a major stab in my back as well as millions of die hard fans who love this team and who despise anything or anyone who has roots to Arsenal. I need to pray.
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@Craig Mc: not sure about the legitimacy of this particular story, but most of the stories we’ve heard this summer have been rubbish, so maybe this is another!!
I still cannot see United going for Henry, it just seems out of this world, although Fergie has liked him for quite a while, just like larsson; but if henry were to come, he knows he would be second fiddle and only have few chances. I don’t think it’ll happen.
On the other hand, if Fergie is gettin him just for this season because he plans to capture benzema nxt season, i’m up for it, maybe henry can help convince Benzema that United are the right team for his future
Maybe Fergie is planning a strike team of rooney, tevez, saha, henry, campbell, manucho… now that’s versatility
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@Grognard: LOL grognard, if Henry did come, that’ll be the craziest transfer in the premiership so far… I mean, everyone related to United hates Henry, and Henry probably hates everything United. It would just leave me speechless, seriously, I don’t know how I would react.. joy or anger, I seriously do not know. Anyway, I hope it’s not true and we get someone else (i’m actually beginning to prefer Huntelaar a bit, i don’t know why
)
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@Grognard: A quote from you earlier:
when the Guardian predicted that Chelsea would win the premiership this year, but now the Guardian is on par with the BBC for accuracy!
So are Chelsea going to win the title?
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Hahaha – Grog, very depictive account of your feeling to and of Henry you give there.
Gabriel, like you said about Larrson, Fergie likes to bring in a golden oldie now and again. But 20 million, to me that’s got to be so farfetched as to be unbelievable. And if it is just for a year as you suppose, then we wouldn’t get anything back for sell on of our 20 million. You know I could believe Fergie might do something ‘out there’ like this, but not for such a bloody foolish price.
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Benjd, the problem with that analogy, is that nobody can report with accuracy who is going to win the title, the Guardian are just hazharding a guess. The Guardian do have quite a few responsible reporters working for them. I guess when Grog talked about the Guardian and cat litter, that some reporter or article from the Guardian had pissed him off. Is that the case Grog?.
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20 million is too much for Henry but if we got him for 10 million or so that would be very good business for us.
He may be getting on a bit but he has a lot of experience, is a great finisher and would thrive leading the line for us. He has been off the boil the last few years but that was because he was playing with the Arsenal youth team and was adapting to a different league played out of position.
Put him in our team give him the sort of service only we can give a striker and he’ll be banging them in!
He is 31 but he should have a good three seasons left in him especially as he’d be playing as part of a rotation system.
Henry talks about loyalty to Arsenal but they got rid of him and Wenger clearly sees Henry as a relic of the past that was holding back Arsenal youth from blooming.
Certainly Id prefer Henry to Et’oo who I think is overrated and reminds me of Defoe for some reason.
Huntelaar Id like a lot but Im guessing the reason no-one goes near him is because he is overpriced by Ajax. If Manchester United won’t pay 30 million for Berbatov I cannot seem them paying 20+ million for Huntelaar who is from a much weaker league.
Silva would be an interesting option but we already have Ronaldo and Nani playing on the wings and you don’t pay 25 million for a sub and I wouldn’t want him squeezing Nani out of the team as I think it is important Nani gets lots of games to develop
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@benjd: Yes they are. There first order is to report the news accurately. Their second order is to have articles written for them that may provoke controversy and response. I have no problem when they report news events as they happen as they do that well and accurately. It’s the writers they have on staff who write their editorials that need to get hung. Big difference between the two and two separate departments in a journalistic paper.
And no, Chelsea will not win the title as long as we buy a striker. If we don’t buy a striker it will be 50/50. I can see them jumping out in front early with Ronaldo and others out with injury as well as our tough early schedule. After that it should be ours to win or lose.
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@Craig Mc: Quite often their editorials are just crap and so London biased. But they do a good job reporting the day to day goings on, and for that they are very responsible and accurate, for the most part. They sure beat the Sun.
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@colver: Wouldn’t you pay 20+ for Huntelaar knowing that he is a proven goal scorer and is only 24? That’s just a bit more than paying for a 31 year old washout like Alien Head who fits in Manchester like Fergie fits with Arsenal. Hell no, I’ll take Huntelaar any day of the week.
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yea Henry can come for 2 years and then probably he can help attract Benzema for as long term solution to center forward position!
This would be perfect. If we can land Henry for 10m or so we’ll still have 20m to get the likes of Sanchez/Silva! This would be great business this summer.
Other idea could be to have Henry or Eto’o on a season long Loan deal! Next year Berba can be available for very cheap as he would have just 1 year left on his deal (and he could buy himself out as he would have completed 3 years at Spurs)! Somehow I feel this is what the boss is planning…
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According to News of the World, los Merengues are demanding £17million from Ronaldo after he recently announced that he would not be moving to the La Liga giants this summer.
The Portuguese superstar seemed a certainty to leave Old Trafford after ignoring Sir Alex Ferguson’s messages while at EURO 2008 and reiterating his life-long desire to ply his trade at the Santiago Bernabeu.
But the United boss has repeatedly insisted that his prize attacker will be going nowhere, and that indeed seems to be the case after the two met for crunch talks earlier in the week.
However, the matter is not done and dusted just yet, as Madrid are now claiming that the 23-year-old agreed terms with them and had a clause inserted in his contract that entitled the Spanish champions to a hefty sum of compensation.
The continental press reports that Real president Ramon Calderon will only forego the fee if an agreement is struck that will see Ronaldo head to los Blancos next summer.
Such an outcome remains highly unlikely, however, given relations between the two clubs have disintegrated throughout the saga.
http://www.goal.com/en-india/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=812401
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Well the BS is starting to make the rounds and create a shit storm of stories which will confuse us and make us all wish this season would finally start and the transfer deadline would end. Now the rumor mongers are circulating strong rumors about Huntelaar once again going to the top of Fergie’s want list as well as this Henry business and still, Berbatov lingers. I think Fergie is putting feelers out there not because he is convinced he will not get Berbatov but to force Spurs hand. I still think when this is all finished it will be Berbatov who is with United and not either Huntelaar or Henry. Fergie wants Berbatov and he will get him. Hell Jos, he’s got two years left as manager. He’s not about to wait another year to get a then 28 year old Berbatov for United. It’s now or never. As soon as Arshavin or Villa are in the bag for Spurs, he will be ours. Right now Fergie is playing a deceptive game with mirrors designed to force Spurs to finally act and sell Berby, before it’s too late and they are stuck with him.
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If Real can actually go ahead with such bull shit, we should SUE THEM FOR TAPPING UP. They are admitting to agreeing terms with our player
I know there are no quotes. So this article is a show of the stupidity of the media or Real.
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As far as the striker debate goes. Im sure we’re signing someone this week. And its going to be one of- Berbatov, Villa, Benzema or Huntelaar
Heck, I know for a fact that any of these would be awesome. And equally so. Each of these guys are different(I don’t know much of Benzema)
Huntelaar is a fox in the box, wouldn’t mind coming of the bench and a good physical presence
Berbatov can hold up the ball, good first touch and can involve others in play
Villa is best at finishing and leading the line
Each are better than the other 2 at these things and thus bring different things to the attack. I wouldn’t mind any of these guys.
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@Grognard:
Its about the way you have shifted and your weak reasoning for it. As I have already said you are the person who wouldn’t take the word of Fergie or United when it came to Ronnie supposedly dissing Fergie yet a single Interview from Ronaldo and your attitude which had you pretty much wanting to lynch Ronaldo is now relatively positive. You also actually attacked Ronaldo for the interview he was supposed to have given where he said that a couple of goals and fans would forget yet you have proven that sentiment true as you have made a pretty big leap without even needing to score some goals.
Whats annoys me personally about your swing is many of the aspects Ronaldo raised are aspects which I raised and you weren’t even willing to consider. You were extremely pig headed and closed minded to anyone who offered an alternative view to you and who called for the benefit of the doubt to be given while there was so little actual information even when the actual facts available blew holes in the rumours.
All in all you have shown a level of fickleness and theres NO WAY you can deny that without telling us and yourself lies
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@Grognard:
If we get Berba I see no reason not to give Saha another chance as a 4th striker. Unless ofc we get Berba plus then an unproven but high potential striker like Huntelaar as you wouldnt want to be wasting playing time on Saha when Huntelaar could be given the time to get settled into the English Game
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Piper, I was thinking the same as you. If Real M go ahead with this ludicrous sue business because Ronnie has supposedly done a deal with them, then United and FIFA have proof positive of Madrid interfering with our player. So all their LIES will expose them as the devious bastards we all know they are. And that sad sap Blatter knows they are. Also, didn’t Ronaldo say just recently that he hasn’t SIGNED anything?. Madrid are just trying to use their improper conduct to hook Ronnie into another bully tactic attempt to commit himself to signing for them next season. Isn’t that BLACKMAIL. Fergie will give them hell over this if it’s true.
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@wakey: You know nothing about me as a person so leave it alone and talk football instead of finding ways to wind me up. I’m not playing anymore.
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Grognard…id pay 10 million for Henry, 15 million for Huntelaar, and 25 million for Berbatov.
I admit I have not seen Huntelaar play much and respect your assessments of him. But Ajax are a selling club and it seems odd that at 24 he is still at Ajax and there have been no firm offers reported from any club. My only conclusion is that he is being priced out of the market by Ajax and is not worth the 20 million or so they are asking for him.
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@Grognard:
You dont need to know anything about a person to know when a persons stance on something shows fickleness. Your fickle plain and simple and none of your explanations for your change are valid for such a change. You were the most EXTREME person making comments and were ignoring facts and others views and were taking rumours as facts and suddenly you are now being somewhat resonable. Even people like RR who were negative to Ronaldo and have warmed a bit since the interview are now more negative than you.
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