{"id":616346,"date":"2022-08-15T16:17:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T20:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=616346"},"modified":"2022-08-16T06:51:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T10:51:34","slug":"erik-ten-hag-cristiano-ronaldo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/08\/15\/erik-ten-hag-cristiano-ronaldo\/","title":{"rendered":"Erik ten Hag Shifts Stance and is &#8216;Open&#8217; to Selling Manchester United Star Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has shifted his stance and is now open to selling Cristiano Ronaldo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/erik-ten-hag-now-ready-to-let-cristiano-ronaldo-leave-manchester-united-t2zwvbbg3?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1660591647\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Times&#8217;<\/a> Duncan Castles, Paul Hirst and Charlotte Duncker report.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo has started both of United&#8217;s Premier League games so far &#8211; a pair of disappointing defeats against Brighton &amp; Hove Albion and Brentford &#8211; but there have been concerns amongst staff at Old Trafford about his behaviour around the squad, which were also reported by Jack Otway of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/1655283\/Manchester-United-transfer-news-Erik-ten-Hag-Cristiano-Ronaldo-sale\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Erik ten Hag Open to Selling Cristiano Ronaldo<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Erik ten Hag shifts stance on selling Cristiano Ronaldo.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ixfU60b3R3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ixfU60b3R3<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6dTn7ShGG1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6dTn7ShGG1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Duncan Castles (@DuncanCastles) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DuncanCastles\/status\/1559263476635373571?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Change of Thought<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the concerns around Ronaldo &#8211; which included him missing much of pre-season &#8211; Ten Hag had previously been happy to keep the Portuguese superstar.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo was United&#8217;s top goalscorer last season and was seen to be a key part of Ten Hag&#8217;s squad going into this campaign.<\/p>\n<p>However, after United struggled massively in their opening two games, losing at home to Brighton and going down 4-0 away at Brentford, it appears Ten Hag has had a change of heart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/3506797\/2022\/08\/15\/manchester-united-ronaldo-ten-hag-brentford\/?source=emp_shared_article\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic&#8217;s<\/a> Adam Crafton reports that Ronaldo&#8217;s reintegration into the squad has been challenging. So much so that he often eats lunch alone, dissents in training and shows his feelings about Ten Hag&#8217;s high-pressing tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Coaches were also unhappy that he did not acknowledge United&#8217;s travelling fans after the humiliating results against Brentford, which saw them concede four goals in the opening 35 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo wants United to let him leave this summer, just a year into the two-year deal he signed after joining from Juventus.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Sky Sports on Monday, former United player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/62559698\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gary Neville said<\/a>: &#8220;There is a massive decision to make on Ronaldo. He is obviously not happy, the problem is if they lose him there is nothing left in the goalscoring part of the pitch. I genuinely think if he leaves and they don&#8217;t bring people in they could finish bottom half of the table.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>No Approaches<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the change of heart and the now apparent desire to let Ronaldo leave, Crafton&#8217;s report goes on to say that United have not had any approaches for the 37-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>His desire is to play in the Champions League &#8211; something United missed out on by finishing sixth last season &#8211; and his representatives have tried to get him moves to Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Napoli, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Having started their first two games of the season, Ronaldo&#8217;s departure would leave an obvious gap up front. They have, in recent days, been linked with a move for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/08\/15\/wesley-fofana-frustrated-leicester-city-chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Leicester City<\/a> striker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-11112431\/Man-United-consider-shock-swoop-35-year-old-Jamie-Vardy-ending-Marko-Arnautovic-pursuit.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jamie Vardy<\/a>, although a move for former West Ham United and Stoke City striker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/sport\/football\/transfer-news\/man-united-marko-arnautovic-transfer-24749557\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marko Arnautovic<\/a> was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2022\/aug\/09\/manchester-united-end-interest-in-marko-arnautovic-after-bid-rejected#:~:text=Manchester%20United%20have%20pulled%20the,going%20to%20increase%20their%20offer.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rejected<\/a> by current club Bologna.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has shifted his stance and is now open to selling Cristiano Ronaldo, The Times&#8217; Duncan Castles, Paul Hirst and Charlotte Duncker report. Ronaldo has started both of United&#8217;s Premier League games so far &#8211; a pair of disappointing defeats against Brighton &amp; Hove Albion and Brentford &#8211; but there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":616347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,18,7188],"tags":[369,4989],"class_list":["post-616346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-featured","category-manchester-united","category-rumours","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-manchester-united-transfers"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}