Cristiano Ronaldo's former manager at Manchester United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted the Portuguese's return was a mistake.
Discovered by Sir Alex Ferguson and bought from Sporting when the Scottish tactician was on the Manchester United bench, Cristiano Ronaldo exploded with the Red Devils before leaving to make his mark at Real Madrid. A few years later, the Portuguese chose to leave Juventus to return to Old Trafford. A choice which caused discussion among the Mancunian leaders. Good or bad choice to bring back the old Lusitanian glory? Looking back, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer considers he made a mistake.
United coach at the time of the return of the five-time Ballon d'Or, the Norwegian had not spoken on the subject since his layoff and his departure in November 2021. Two months earlier, it was he who had pushed for the recruitment of “CR7” who was then thirty-five years old. If Ronaldo's debut had gone well, the rest had been much less so and the player's relationship with Solskjaer's successor, Erik ten Hag, ended up making a divorce official in the winter of 2022.
McKenna was against Manchester United
In a long interview broadcast on Monday by the Norwegian podcast “NRK”, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer notably named one of his assistants at the time who was right in believing that the recruitment of Cristiano Ronaldo was not really a good idea, but especially not the priority. Kieran McKenna, current Ipswich coach, believed that more attention should be devoted to strengthening the defense. A sector in which Manchester United has invested a lot since then, without any real success.
And Solskjaer talks about Ronaldo by making a confession:
“It was probably a bad choice for everyone. But at the time and in the moment, we felt it was a good decision. » As for his three years on the Manchester United bench, the Norwegian only wanted to keep good memories. “I am proud of what I did. I must say that there were lots of good things and we were heading towards something very good. We finished third and second, we reached several semi-finals and unfortunately we lost this final (against Villarreal in the 2021 Europa League final, editor's note). If we had won, the rest would have been completely different. »
