sport news GRAEME SOUNESS: Manchester United would be CRAZY to ditch Cristiano Ronaldo trends now
My views on Paul Pogba at Manchester United - that he was a flop, with an attitude that was indefensible - have been fairly robust over the past few seasons.
All the club's immediate rivals will be sorry to see him leave, because he was a one-man, dressing-room wrecking ball. A virus, as Jose Mourinho once called him.
Now United start a new season with another player who would rather be somewhere else but I will say without the slightest hesitation that they should go to great lengths to keep Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo can be a huge benefit to Manchester United's dressing room this season
Erik ten Hag must sit down with Ronaldo and get him back on side before the season opener
Until he arrived last season, who in that Manchester United dressing room was there for the kids to look at and say: 'That's how I want my career to be. I want to play like him and live like him'? No one. And who is there now? No one.
Ronaldo could sit down in a room with all the greats from history - Di Stefano, Pele, Messi, anyone you care to mention - and say: 'I've been better than any of you.' He would have a very strong argument, too. He's not my personal choice but he can say that because of his longevity. His consistency. His extraordinary goals.
Erik ten Hag will not have been happy that he left Old Trafford before the end of United's friendly against Rayo Vallecano last weekend. But you are dealing with someone whose ego would choke a horse - and quite rightly so, considering what he has brought to football.
He wanted to spend more than the first half on the field but with the attitude this man has, he needs protecting from himself at this stage of the pre-season.
At 37, he will start to get muscle injuries. What an attitude, though. You are talking about the ultimate pro. Everybody in that dressing room, young and old, can look at him and learn something.
Having known only the standards that Sir Alex Ferguson laid down, Ronaldo was staggered by the attitude of coddled younger players, by the lack of respect for him and the poor decision-making which saw United decide it was a good idea to hire an interim manager last November. An interim manager who, by January, was trying to sell him.
It's hardly surprising that his agent Jorge Mendes began the summer with a tour of likely buyers.
I don't believe there's the remotest chance that Ronaldo and Mendes will have gone out on a limb and let it be known he wanted to leave without believing they had something lined up. They would have done their homework first. But it's not happened.
Ronaldo is an all-time great and United would be foolish to allow him to leave this summer
Thomas Tuchel felt it wouldn't fit his squad dynamic and long-term game plan at Chelsea. Bayern feel the same, though given that Robert Lewandowski has gone to Barcelona, leaving Sadio Mane as their main goal threat, they are a club crying out for Ronaldo's goals. More fool them and Chelsea for not leaping at the chance, I say. But United can shape this to their advantage.
All the noises we've heard from Ten Hag - encouraging noises - have been about instilling discipline and values but he needs to be aware of the power of the modern player. It's never been greater and that's why managing has never been more difficult.
If I were Ten Hag, I would want to sit in the room with Ronaldo, look him in the eye and tell him: 'Things are different here. I've got a different type of player coming in now.'
United have shipped out a load of the dead wood - players just
