Cristiano Ronaldo has another reason to leave Man Utd as 'crunch meeting' set for Monday

CRISTIANO RONALDO could leave Manchester United high and dry by demanding an exit this summer.

Posted Monday, July 04, 2022 by Express.co.uk

Cristiano Ronaldo is due to return from his summer holiday and head straight back to Manchester United training on Monday, where his future will be a hot topic of discussion. The veteran forward has supposedly asked to leave Old Trafford after they failed to qualify for the Champions League, and his desire to leave may not centre solely on an inability to play in Europe's top-tier club competition, but also a pay cut that comes with it.

Many United stars have already banked a full week of training under new boss Erik ten Hag. Ronaldo, however, opted to take his full statutory three-week break before returning to the training pitch, having had to drag United kicking and screaming through plenty of matches last term.

His impressive 18-goal haul was enough for third spot in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot, but it was not enough to finish any better than sixth, and many believe that the Red Devils actually got worse after his arrival from Juventus last summer.

The Telegraph claim that Ronaldo and Ten Hag will sit down on Monday, where the Dutchman will discover just how serious the 37-year-old is about finding a new club.

Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to report back for pre-season on Monday

Ronaldo is still believed to hold an affinity for United and their fans, but he has played Champions League football in every season since 2003 without ever dropping down to the Europa League. Maximising the tail-end of his career will naturally be a high priority for the former Real Madrid superstar, who is held by some to be the greatest of all time.

A lack of top-tier European football will reportedly hit Ronaldo's pay packet too. A mammoth £480,000-a-week wage makes him the best-paid player in English football, but next season he would be unable to benefit from the incentive clauses built into his contract that rely on United's place in the Champions League.

Unless he would be willing to take a pay cut elsewhere, Ronaldo's gargantuan wages could be the key stumbling block that prevents him from moving on this summer. Such huge numbers significantly limit the number of teams with the financial muscle to even think about lodging an approach for the Portuguese, despite rumoured interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich.

Blues owner Todd Boehly reportedly met with Ronaldo's agent, Jorge Mendes, towards the end of June, and Bayern could have cash to splash if they backtrack on their intention to keep hold of Robert Lewandowski. That being said, United are supposedly in no mood to let Ronaldo leave and expect him to honour the final year of his contract.

If the attacker decides to try and force through an exit, it would leave Ten Hag and co scrambling to find a new striker before the end of the summer. United had shown interest in Darwin Nunez before Liverpool signed him for themselves, but most of their efforts have been channelled into negotiations for the likes of Frenkie de Jong and Tyrell Malacia.

The developments could place more responsibility on the shoulders of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial next campaign. Both forwards badly struggled for form in 2021/22, but have dazzled in previous spells during their United careers.