Cristiano Ronaldo has made it very clear he has no intention of listening to the advice of former teammate Gary Neville, who suggested he stay at Manchester United and play fewer games.
The 37-year-old forward sparked headlines and took attention away from his teammates in the wake of United's 2-0 home win over Tottenham. Ronaldo, clearly unhappy with the fact he was an unused substitute for the victory, stormed down the Old Trafford tunnel minutes before second-half stoppage time without the permission of manager Erik ten Hag.
It did not evade detection from Ten Hag, who told Amazon Prime after the game: "He was there, I have seen him but I didn't speak. I will deal with that tomorrow not today. We're celebrating this victory and now we have to recover and another big game on Saturday, Chelsea. The Premier League, so exciting.
The temper tantrum from the 37-year-old forward comes just a week after Neville exclusively told Mirror Football he'd like his old teammate to come to terms with the fact he can't play as much football as he could when he was a young man.
"What I would hope is that, like with any other player coming towards the end of his career, he'll accept that he won't play every single game and he'll stay and become a massive contributor like he was on Sunday night [in the win over Everton] and United will have a good season.
"If Ronaldo stays I do think they have a far better chance of being a top-four team, even if he doesn't play every week and he comes off the bench like he did against Everton. But I suspect his mentality, his psyche is such that he can't not play.
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"He feels it's an insult and people I respect enormously in the game think he's being disrespected by being on the bench, but I don't see that at all. I think Erik ten Hag has come out of this really well."
That divide between Ronaldo and Ten Hag is likely to have only deepened after the former's trudge down the tunnel while the game was still going on.
If ever there was a gesture that suggested Ronaldo has little to no intention of staying at Old Trafford beyond the end of this season, then turning his back on his teammates to head for an early exit may have been it.
It has been a miserable campaign so far for the Portugal skipper, who has netted just twice and lasted the full 90 minutes once in the Premier League.
