Loyalty Song

Today there's news coming from our tour of South Africa, including a few quotes, a bit of Ronaldo speculation and a quote from Roy Keane which is taken in a Ronaldo context.

This Guardian article has a good summary of the South Africa stuff:

Sir Alex Ferguson has sparked fresh speculation that he is trying to sign the Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov, confirming that Manchester United have lodged a "bid for one player who would enhance us a great deal."
"I have replaced Gerard Piqué with Jonny Evans, so we are back to the same numbers," said Ferguson, who set off today with a 21-man squad for United's pre-season tour of South Africa and Nigeria. "If we got one more it would strengthen us even further."

Owen Hargreaves hasn't flown with the squad:

"It was apparent as soon as he came back to training," said Ferguson. "It is the same as last year. Some people get these things. Maybe training on the firm grounds brings it on or maybe it is just an inherent problem. We are trying to sort it out now with injections. That is what we did last November and it worked. Hopefully these work and by the time we come back from South Africa he should be OK."

The Guardian report that, "Sir Alex Ferguson has met Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time in six weeks in an attempt to persuade the winger to forgo his "dream" move to Real Madrid and remain at Manchester United", while The Times is a little more circumspect:

According to RTP, the Portuguese television station, Ferguson met Ronaldo in Lisbon on Monday. That was known to have been the Scot’s intention, but at the weekend he encouraged the belief that a busy schedule had forced him to abandon that plan.

The Telegraph report on Ronaldo's trip to LA in strange terms:

Sir Alex Ferguson's battle to keep Cristiano Ronaldo in line suffered a double setback yesterday.

The unsettled Manchester United winger, who is recovering from an ankle operation, was pictured out on the town in Los Angeles, and then former United captain Roy Keane pitched in by saying the Portuguese international could use the tactics of frustration to secure a move to Real Madrid.

How either of these things, in even the wildest of interpretations, can be described as a setback is beyond me. The Keane quote is not in the other article I'm going to mention, so I may as well stick it in here:

"If a player wants to leave, all he has to do is come in every day, not train with the right attitude and I guarantee you that would **** any manager off," he said.

The article doesn't exactly explain the context of Keane's comment, one is left to assume it refers to Ronaldo.

A highly speculative story which is widely reported (I'll use The Telegraph, who give it a predictable weight which others don't) emanates from Real:

According to Spanish sports daily AS, an unnamed player jokingly asked Real president Ramon Calderon when Ronaldo would be joining the club to be greeted with a smile and a "Don't worry, he'll be here soon" reply.

Quite.

The Times reports what Keane had to say in greater detail:

Roy Keane has claimed that clubs treat their players like “pieces of meat”. While the Sunderland manager was not speaking directly about Cristiano Ronaldo's controversial courtship by Real Madrid, the Irishman's departure from Old Trafford has given him a jaundiced view of loyalty in the game.

Keane, who left Manchester United in acrimonious circumstances in 2005, said: “When a club is finished with you, they get rid. My advice is look after yourself. If you get a chance for bigger and better things, then go for it. I've experienced that myself. People question players' loyalty. I question clubs' loyalty. It's a business to them.

“If you're not needed then you can be out of the door in ten minutes, and I'm speaking from experience. Clubs buy and sell players. Clubs sell players sometimes like a piece of meat.”

My gripe with this is not to do with Roy Keane, or the linking of this comment with Man Utd. It is to do with the linking of it to Ronaldo. Keane is probably right that clubs do probably sometimes sell players without any concern for the player. The problem with linking this to Ronaldo is that we have treated Ronaldo with the greatest of care, one could go so far as to say we've been very loyal to him. Of course it's arguable that Ronaldo, being the special player he is, would probably merit great treatment, not for any ethical reason, but for purely business reasons. However, one can only really be judged on action so, as the club has shown Ronaldo loyalty, surely the club deserves some loyalty in return? All of which is to say, this quote of Keane's should not be linked to the Ronaldo saga.