August 13, (THEWILL) – According to Manchester United boss, Erik ten Hag, Cristiano Ronaldo has not discussed his decision to leave the team this summer with him.
However, Ronaldo expressed his desire to leave United in search of Champions League football earlier this summer. He also missed United’s preseason for “personal reasons,” which resulted in a sluggish start to life under the new manager, and was considered only fit enough for a spot on the bench in United’s season-opening loss to Brighton.
Despite the air of uncertainty about the exit plans of the Portuguese, Ten Hag has frequently expressed his wish to keep Ronaldo on board and promised to integrate him into his plans for the team this season. In his pre-match comments, Ten Hag questioned the fact of Ronaldo’s desire to leave when asked if it was wise to pick him to start against Brentford.
He fired back: “[Ronaldo wanting to leave] is your assumption. That is not what he is telling me. So I deal with the players we have and we plan with him for this season and we are happy with him and we have to fit him into the team.
So he has to come at the right fitness levels so that he can do the job that we expect him to do. In every press conference, we already confirmed that he is in our plans. We plan with him so we also plan around him.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
