Cristiano Ronaldo approached former Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick last season to call for Harry Maguire to be dropped.
Reports regularly emerged of the fractions behind the scenes at Old Trafford last term, with the dressing room divided over captaincy, management and training. The Red Devils finished the campaign in the Europa League placings, though one would argue that it did justice to such a disappointing campaign.
It has now been claimed that Ronaldo was at the heart of the complaints at United, with the forward approaching the club to blame team-mate Maguire for the team’s struggles. According to The Athletic, the 37-year-old approached Rangnick in February and told him: “Maguire is part of the problem."
French stars Paul Pogba and Raphael Varane were also present and were keen to let the interim boss know their thoughts.
Ronaldo felt that the England international should be ‘demoted’ to the bench due to his bad run of form, regardless of his club captaincy.
However, Rangnick was keen to deal with the matter professionally and told Maguire that it was ‘inappropriate’ to hold discussions about Maguire when he was not even aware or involved in the conversations. Some of the cohort later apologised for the ad-hoc meeting.
Ronaldo did not shy away from letting his feelings known on other matters too, telling Rangnick about how he would like to play in a strike partnership rather than as a lone No 9. The Portugal international drew up the formation he would like to play and also revealed that he wanted to start alongside Edinson Cavani, but the plans fell on deaf ears.
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The report goes on to state that although Ronaldo remains keen to leave the club, Maguire is still a popular figure in the United dressing room. The former Leicester City defender was dropped by Erik ten Hag for United’s match against Southampton last weekend though, in which they won 1-0.
Ten Hag then revealed that Maguire being club captain does not guarantee him as a regular starter, especially after the arrival of Lisandro Martinez from Ajax this summer. The Dutchman said: “I don't think it means that when you are captain you are established to play always, especially when you also have Varane in your squad,
“There is competition, and we need that. Varane's stature is immense. When the team needed him, he was there. His profile, stature and what he won in the past shows he can really contribute. We have so many games and we can see from game to game what we need. There are many options.”
Maguire was linked with Chelsea earlier this summer, though it was soon revealed that United are not keen to part ways with the defender and the Blues consequently turned their attention to other targets, such as Wesley Fofana. It remains to be seen whether the 29-year-old will reclaim his spot in the Red Devils’ starting line-up this week for matches against Leicester or Arsenal, or if he will continue to warm the bench for the foreseeable future.
