Diminished and now dropped, Cristiano Ronaldo’s time at Manchester United is all but over

The fixture should have some resonance for Cristiano Ronaldo. He has scored four goals in Champions League finals but the first was for Manchester United against Chelsea. Saturday’s game could have transported him back to his past. It might have even been the Ronaldo derby. Had Todd Boehly got his wish in the summer, he could be leading the line for Chelsea.

Instead, he will be conspicuous by his absence, dropped from the United squad. Having absented himself for the final minutes against Tottenham on Wednesday, Erik ten Hag has made his exclusion a lengthier affair. Demoted then disciplined, Ronaldo has presented Ten Hag with more problems than defences this season. Now a suspension of sorts sets the stage for a more permanent parting.

It has become one of the worst weeks of one of the great careers. He has been reduced to displays of dissent, losing a power struggle with a manager who has placed less weight on Ronaldo’s stature or statistics, on his past or his profile.

He remains box office in one respect, but Ten Hag may have tired of the Ronaldo sideshow. Flashpoints have followed since he last kicked a ball in earnest. First came the repeated head-shaking when substituted against Newcastle on Sunday. A more serious gesture of dissent to Ten Hag followed when he headed down the tunnel before the final whistle on Wednesday; a still worse one has been reported, that Ronaldo refused to come on. Certainly the forward Ten Hag did introduce was Anthony Elanga, whose tally of seven career goals for club and country is 810 short of Ronaldo’s.

And certainly United, who have felt in thrall to Ronaldo until relatively recently, have supported Ten Hag. It is partly a question of authority. But there is a footballing argument, and Ten Hag is winning it. He preferred Marcus Rashford against Spurs, he said, because of the Englishman’s pressing, which created chances. He even said Rashford changed the game against Newcastle, though it stayed a stalemate. His vision of the game involves running. He wants a more mobile front three and, were Anthony Martial fit, Ronaldo might only be his third-choice centre-forward.

Which, for a player who ranked in the world’s top two for a dozen years, represents a fall from grace he perhaps does not understand. Selfishness propelled him to the heights, with an absolute determination to shed every ounce of fat and score every goal, but seeing everything through the prism of himself may have blinded him to the wider picture.

It may be galling to him, but teams no longer prosper by catering to Ronaldo’s every need – indeed, there is a case that both United and Juventus weakened themselves by signing him, with his goals insufficient to cancel out the wider cost to other players and the team – and Ten Hag’s brief reign has showed a road map to a future without Ronaldo.

He has three hugely encouraging victories and Ronaldo played four late minutes in the 2-1 win over Liverpool, 32 in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal and none at all against Spurs. His only meaningful contribution to United’s season has been an admittedly excellent winner at Everton. His reaction on Wednesday may have garnered sympathy from his army of admirers, but overshadowed one of United’s finest performances for years.

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It is not his only misjudgement. If he miscalculated in the summer by trying to leave without having a taker, that may be another sign of his fading allure. The problem for United is finding anyone willing to fund his salary – giving him away on a free transfer would be the easy part – and it should now be evident to everyone that a January exit is in everyone’s interests. Indeed, outside the cultish nature of Ronaldo’s fan club, it ought to be clear to most others that United erred by re-signing him at all.

It would be instructive to know what the Portuguese expected. Perhaps he did not realise the scale of United’s decline in between his departure in 2009 and his return in 2021, let alone anticipate the car-crash season that followed, but a year on, he should have seen that a new regime had a mandate for change. Even for an age-defying athlete and a player of formidable dedication and motivation, it ought to have been obvious that decline would come at some stage and Ronaldo is pushing 38. A manager and a team would have to move on, and Ten Hag has, with United the seeming beneficiaries from reshaping the pecking order to demote a player who is past his prime.

It is clear he is struggling to come to terms with his diminishing status. Petulance has not proved a profitable ploy; not when he has encountered Ten Hag’s iron will. It is starting to look like an undignified end to an increasingly unhappy reunion. There may even be some doubt if he plays for United again. The chances are that Ronaldo blames Ten Hag for that, but the fault lies with him.