I tell you what, I have read some tripe in my time and seen some outrageous links to players since the takeover, but this one might just be the laziest, most mental one yet.
Spanish publication, as.com, have linked Arsenal and Newcastle to a January move for Cristiano Ronaldo.
If you’ve stopped laughing, then I will continue.
Ronaldo has clearly fallen out of favour at Manchester United after refusing to come off the bench in a recent game and then being unceremoniously booted from the squad by Erik ten Hag. The happy days are over for the Portuguese who seems to be having a hard time understanding the fact that he’s 37 years old and therefore simply isn’t the first choice anymore.
If There Was Any Truth To The Rumour, Would You Take Ronaldo?
Yes
No
The fact that Newcastle’s name is in the frame as a possible destination in January is down to absolutely nothing beyond the fact that the footballing world knows we have money and assume that we can afford any player going and will pay for their services.
What journalists outside of Newcastle seem to fail to recognise is that we aren’t throwing money around, we are building steadily, yes we’ve spent big, but we’ve done it on the right players who complement the squad that’s already in place while improving said squad. Every player we look at has their character assessed as well as their footballing ability, so the idea of signing someone who refuses to come off the bench, someone who sits on the bench watching his teammates play with a look of disgust/anger on his face, someone who visibly questions the manager’s decision to substitute them as they’re exiting the pitch … that kind of player wouldn’t even make it past stage one of the recruitment process for Eddie Howe.
For the record, I can’t see him moving to Arsenal either. They don’t need him and they also likely wouldn’t tolerate his actions, they’ve already been through that kind of shenanigans with Aubameyang.