Watch: Man Utd’s Cristiano Ronaldo ignores fans and storms off pitch
Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t hide his frustrations after Manchester United suffered an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Brentford.
Ronaldo returned to United last summer and scored 24 goals in 37 apperances in all competitions during a turbulent season at Old Trafford.
But the striker reportedly wants to play for a Champions League club this season and hasn’t been impressed by United’s work in the transfer market.
“The reality is that Cristiano wants to leave Manchester United,” Fabrizio Romano said in July. “Jorge Mendes has been clear, they want to try and find a solution this summer. He is really disappointed by Manchester United’s general situation [but] in the market especially.
“I’m told that Cristiano appreciates Erik ten Hag, he’s convinced he’s a very good manager, the right man to restart this project.
“But it can’t be only the manager, it is needed from the club, the board and the owners – a really strong message and statement in the market. They need to sign players.”
He had been linked with Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid but all three clubs have since distanced themselves from a move for the 37-year-old.
Ronaldo is still on United’s books at the time of writing and came off the bench during their defeat to Brighton on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.
“[Ronaldo wanting to leave] is your assumption. That is not what he is telling me,” Erik ten Hag said ahead of the game against Brentford.
“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.”
The Portugal international was named in the starting XI for the trip to the Brentford Community Stadium but failed to make much of an impact.
United were blown away by first-half goals from Josh Dasllva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo and have now lost their first two games in 2022-23.
According to the Manchester Evening News, United assistant manager Steve McClaren urged Ronaldo to go over and clap the travelling away fans after the full-time whistle.
Despite initially walking towards them, he then turned around and threw his hands into the air. The striker also walked straight past Ten Hag before making his way down the tunnel.
The full post-match video of Ronaldo. He starts to go over to the #mufc travelling fans and then turns away pic.twitter.com/ivKghiGNvw
— James Robson (@jamesalanrobson) August 14, 2022
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