The problem for anybody signing Cristiano Ronaldo is that, no matter how big the club, it immediately becomes FC Ronaldo. Wednesday should have been about Manchester United’s extremely impressive performance in a 2–0 win over Tottenham, the best it has played under Erik ten Hag and arguably the most encouraging performance since those counterattacking displays in the early days under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But instead the headlines were, yet again, about Ronaldo.
The 37-year-old had refused to come off the bench with United 2–0 up. When Christian Eriksen and Anthony Elanga were brought on after 87 minutes, Ronaldo could be seen, standing in front of the wall of the Old Trafford dugout.