Cristiano Ronaldo flew back to Manchester on Monday to hold talks with manager Erik ten Hag and chief executive Richard Arnold about his future.
Ronaldo is yet to work with Ten Hag, having missed United’s pre-season trips to Thailand and Australia due to family reasons. The 37-year-old has told the club he wants to leave this summer if a suitable offer comes in, because he is desperate to play in the Champions League next season.
Ten Hag and Arnold have made it clear that they expect Ronaldo to see out the remainder of his £500,000-a-week contract, which runs until June 2023. Ten Hag has publicly confirmed his stance. “We are planning with Cristiano for this season, so that's it and I am looking forward to working with him,” he said on July 11. “I spoke with him before this issue came up. I had a really good conversation with him, but that will stay between me and him. But Cristiano is not for sale.”
While his team-mates have played four pre-season friendlies against Liverpool, Melbourne Victory, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, Ronaldo has kept himself busy by training alone in Lisbon. United have now flown back from Australia and their return has prompted Ronaldo to jet back to Manchester as well.
Ten Hag gave his players the day off on Monday to recuperate after the long flight, but they are due back in training at Carrington on Tuesday. It is currently unclear whether Ronaldo will join them, but face-to-face talks between the star forward, Ten Hag and Arnold are on the agenda for this week.
United have taken a hands-off approach with Ronaldo over the past few weeks in the hope that he will come around to the idea of staying to play under the new management. However, Mirror Football understands that United have privately accepted that keeping an unhappy player could disrupt Ten Hag's efforts for the 2022/23 campaign.
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Sources close to the situation say that Ten Hag has been working hard over the past month to restore harmony in the Red Devils' dressing room and doesn’t want Ronaldo to disrupt things. The Dutchman was aware that cliques in the squad were a major problem during the reigns of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.
Even if United agreed to sell, Ronaldo’s options for a possible transfer are limited by his colossal wage package. Bayern Munich, Napoli and Atletico Madrid have all expressed an interest, but the finances involved in a deal make things difficult.
The possibility of a move back to Madrid, where he lived between 2009 and 2018, is thought to appeal to Ronaldo and his young family, but his links with Real Madrid has sparked a backlash among Atleti supporters. Meanwhile, Sporting boss Ruben Amorim has moved to cool speculation that Ronaldo was ever a target for the Portuguese giants.
