Was Ronaldo right to leave United?

goal a game and several dozen million says he's ok

Not havin to play with carrick and rooney can't be discounted

Relevant:

http://www.ronaldo7.net/faq/irina-shayk-lingerie-sexy-pic.jpg

please to give any hypothetical reasons why staying at united would have been worth considering?

had totally sonned everyone with zilch left to prove by the time he left

staying wouldve been some larsson mentality

the only reason i'm voting "should've gone somewhere else" is cos fuck a Real but staying at Utd wd've been pointless, yeah. he stayed a season too long if anything.

Good points all; especially that girl, who is very pretty.

I dunno though, I guess I'm really wondering 'what should a footballer want from his career?' and Ronaldo's move is one where the margins seem pretty fine. Y'know, is it money? Glory? Sustained success? Personal improvement? The collective? Legacy? Lifestyle? Was Giggs right to stay?

cron proved it all at utd, was right to try another league, another team. also €€€€€€€€€€. Also goal a game since.

did the right thing going to RM, much as i dislike them.

http://getfootballnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/PAIDDDD.jpg

Hm, no Tevez? Surely Rooney's not on £10m+ a year. And what is Conca?

dario conca??

Of marcello lippi's Guangzhou Evergrande.

Not bad money for someone who is 29 and has never been a full international is it?

You're forgetting all that shit that went down with Fergie, Rooney and Man City at the start of last season. Reckon Rooney probably did quite nicely out of that.

tevez probably on around 200k p week if those figures thrown around when city wouldn't pay his wages are to be believed. that should put him in the range of messi and ronaldo i guess.

tax differences?

who knows. that zlatan figure should definitely be post-tax though. and spain used to have that very generous beckham tax or whatever it was called, but i think they've changed that?

either way i can sort of imagine ronaldo looking at that, wondering 'what is a conca?'.

Is Eto'o still on the hook for tax evasion in Spain?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

goal a game and several dozen million says he's ok

^seems the obvious answer

Zenit to field Danny and Nani

This would be stupid because Hulk plays in approximately the same position. Danny is still out injured though so I guess Nani could play LW.

FUCK. OFF.

not you boxall

This is really odd behaviour from Zenit, nothing for two years before prising open the piggybank for a last-minute splurge.

I thought this was a difficult question btw, ILF harbours no such doubts.

This is horrifying. Just horrifying. Selling Nani and keeping Ashley Young? Bizarre

@HankSterlingESPN

My sources tell me that Zenit did have a bid accepted by Man Utd in the last week, but the player declined the move citing Russia being a "weaker league" #Nani #MUFC #Zenit

actually, seems that tweet is a fake. Now i'm reading that the move broke down due to Nani's wage demands. Good.

Anzhi Makhachkala it is then.

Hm, are we to take from this that Utd now have a £25m shortfall and will be looking to shift someone shortly to make up for it?

just a drop in the ocean

Rooney will be on his way within a year

I thought this was a difficult question btw

Really? What is the downside (for him) of his move to Real?

it's a much better question framed against giggs

like when beckham, mcmanaman, owen went to real there wasnt quite the same feeling of obviousness and perhaps an (completely illogical) latent feeling they'd gone for money and fame rather than simply accepting the greater sporting challenge

none of those ever dominated the league to the extent as ronnie did but i'm not sure that is the truthful mitigation

Less of a legacy, he could've wrapped up ten titles in his Utd career and would've fancied another couple of CLs. Also being there was really good for his development. Better commercial prospects at Utd maybe, more wages if that table's to be believed and it is the biggest club in the world. No Messi making you look like a dick several times a year.

None of these are certain obv, except Messi.

Hm, are we to take from this that Utd now have a £25m shortfall and will be looking to shift someone shortly to make up for it?

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 6 September 2012 22:02 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

isnt it generally accepted (and based on nothing whatsoever come to think of it) that fergie has been brewing a resentment to nani

Not to my knowledge. I mean, you'd think he'd really hate him, it feels natural, but it'd be a bit perverse to act now when he's become good.

Beckham was on the way down (though still good) when he left. I honestly can't remember about Mcmananananananaman. Owen was still good, wasn't he? Or maybe not - need the ILF Liverpool contingent to weigh in on this one.

Less of a legacy, he could've wrapped up ten titles in his Utd career and would've fancied another couple of CLs. Also being there was really good for his development. Better commercial prospects at Utd maybe, more wages if that table's to be believed and it is the biggest club in the world. No Messi making you look like a dick several times a year.

Being there *was* good for his development, but by 2007 he had already developed into either the best or the second best player in the world, so I don't think the development factor would have been key in 2009. Re: titles / CLs / wages / biggest club in the world - going to Real Madrid (especially from a Glazer-inhibited United) is hardly a step down in any of those respects. Maybe he wanted the challenge of a Messi.

All true, but that's why I'm surprised it was a landslide.

McManaman was a surprise to most in the UK I think, albeit that Real weren't quite the behemoth they became a year or two later. He was always underrated here, as a kind of lightweight winger who'd never kicked on and become a Tony Daley. But he was really excellent for Real even so. Owen I don't really remember, he might've been injured between 2001 and 2004 for all I can recall of him - he was unlucky with timing his move in fairness.

It always struck me how badly Beckham was utilised at Madrid, although I'm sure he encouraged it, like playing in central midfield was his stab at punk rock authenticity after the pop fripperies of playing on the wing. Strikes me that Beckham to Real was as much about status and glory as money.

Owen less so, but I dunno, no one goes to Real Madrid just for the money do they, unless they're de facto accepting sitting on the bench most of the time, and no way was that in Owen's gameplan at the time.

Owen did alright at Madrid when he actually played but he obviously wasn't central to anyone's plans. He was improving for them when they sold him iirc.

Owen was still good, wasn't he? Or maybe not - need the ILF Liverpool contingent to weigh in on this one.

from memory, and god knows how you'd look it up quickly and easily (oh for some sort of instant "words in a box" finding motor, dunno what you'd call it) owen scored a fair few in his last season, though i have some vague memory his limitations were beginning to show and he kept pulling his hamstring, i think.

“When the choice is between a hell of a lot of money and a hell of a lot of money,” McManaman said, “the difference between the two sums, in reality, is not enough to sway you one way or another. I wanted to play abroad, full stop.”

anyone remember this? i don't

http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/09/gerard-houllier-the-dynasty-chapter/

Finally, Steve McManaman already had one eye on an exit before Houllier arrived, almost certainly because in 1997 Liverpool had agreed to sell him to Barcelona for a fee of £12m; when he turned up in Spain to talk over the move, he found that the Catalan giants had instead decided to sign Rivaldo, and that he was only a safeguard should the deal for the Brazilian fall through.

Yeah, I remember that. I've become slightly doubtful about it though, because years later I heard the same story only about Ronaldinho and Beckham.

dunno what you'd call it

The Amazing Information Retrieval System Based Upon Words Entered In A Box?

The Amazing Information Retrieval System Based Upon Words Entered In A Box?

shit that's catchy

Finally, Steve McManaman already had one eye on an exit before Houllier arrived, almost certainly because in 1997 Liverpool had agreed to sell him to Barcelona for a fee of £12m; when he turned up in Spain to talk over the move, he found that the Catalan giants had instead decided to sign Rivaldo, and that he was only a safeguard should the deal for the Brazilian fall through.

remember this well, it was reported as a done deal at the time.

imagine how good messi could have been if he'd had a mentor like steve mcmanaman

macca could've had a word with him and convinced him to come to liverpool

i remember that macca to real was announced on the morning of a league match away to coventry. that day still haunts me.

What happened at Coventry?

it was the macca news that got me rather than the match. lost 3-1? (checks). 2-1. and shaggy scored.