Endings in football – in any sport, or, to that point, in any area of life – are rarely perfect.

In football, you can take a quick look at any number of great players or managers and how things ended for their careers and you’d probably quickly wish you hadn’t.

At Manchester United, even the greatest managers had a certain tinge of anti-climax about the way things seemed to go on the way out – we all remember the Turkish referee against Real Madrid in 2013 which vexed Sir Alex Ferguson so much, while Matt Busby’s first retirement came as his veteran players began to show the strains of time months after maximising every effort to win the European Cup.

More pertinently to this column, the fabled lineage of the number 7 shirt comes with a varying degree of disappointment at the end. George Best was unrecognisable as the waif and wispy star who teammates once wondered if he might break in half if he was on the end of a rough-house tackle, and to this day, the way he left in January 1974 after months of coming and going and never showing for training, is held against him by some of those who hero-worshipped him.

Steve Coppell was forced to call time on his career thanks to injury, Eric Cantona had the prescience to call time on his when he felt his power waning, leaving the fans wanting more, whilst Bryan Robson, fittingly, probably had as close to perfect as an end could be, winning two league titles right at the tail end of his career – and even then there was melancholy that he wasn’t included in the 1994 FA Cup Final squad.

David Beckham’s departure was seen as too soon by many and too late by others, yet it was commonly agreed the fee of £25m seemed very cheap; his exit vacated that famous shirt, and the number was inherited by Cristiano Ronaldo. The first time Ronaldo left, in 2009, it was with a world record fee and as the best player in the world.

It was also a year after describing himself as a ‘slave’ in order to try and enact a move to Real Madrid – in the end, a compromise was reached for that extra 12 months.

Ronaldo fulfilled all of his potential in the intervening years. He is now at the epicentre of the discussion for being the greatest player of all time. Others might say Messi, Maradona, Pele, Cruyff, Zidane, or Best, and as we witness the World Cup, a new name in Kylian Mbappe is surely destined to enter that conversation. It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t champion Ronaldo’s name in that argument, the fact of the matter is that he is in the conversation, no matter if you dislike him, or prefer the style of another player.

He has scored more goals than any other player in history and he has achieved that despite playing much of his career not as an orthodox striker. His skill and pace was blistering and when he unlocked that ability to use the pace to penetrate, once he cut out the deliberating to become devastating, we witnessed a peak that seemed to last a decade. He was the best player in England, often laid claim to being the best in Spain, and then again in Italy, as he won trophies everywhere he went.

When he returned to Manchester United in 2021 it was the biggest transfer of all-time. Not in terms of fee, of course. But the coverage and press reaction was remarkable and the attention on his return game against Newcastle made it the most high-profile game of a season where the title race went right to the last day and was decided in dramatic fashion.

Ronaldo is box office, so are Manchester United, this in spite of both of their stars having faded in the years since they last danced together. That was natural in the case of the player – age is unavoidable.

We all know how it went. For the record, I don’t go along with the popular held theory that he was instrumental in the collapse of the Solskjaer era; that he caused an implosion that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

United were always undermined by the colossal hole in the centre of midfield and a deep-set defence that was conflicting to the club’s historical style of play and often contrary to the mood of the stadium, provoking much frustration.

These problems were not caused by Ronaldo nor were they compounded but it is unavoidable that Ronaldo’s style as a striker caused some adjustment in the front line. He was always going to play, and the other forwards around him were not renowned for their delivery, so on the one hand you could say his goal return was even more remarkable than it was considering his age.

Nor do I go along with the perception that he was unwilling to press. Pressing is closing down, it’s not giving the opponent space to make a composed decision with the ball, dressed up in new clothes to present it as modern football and to project upon a veteran as if they don’t belong in the contemporary era. If you watched Ronaldo this time around, you saw him press more than he did back from 2003 to 2009, albeit with as much motivation as you could hope to see from a player of that inclination and age.

There were the histrionics you could categorise as ‘standards’ and then there were the histrionics you could categorise as destabilising and the difference in the two could be traced back to the summer, where Ronaldo clearly wanted to leave, and then assured Ten Hag he would stay (for a more comprehensive piece on this, read this from last month in reaction to the Piers Morgan soundbites).

Ronaldo did stay and faced the discipline that was accordant to his actions; he was brought back into the team very quickly, but looked incredibly rusty, undoubtedly a consequence of missing the intense pre-season with a new manager looking to implement a very different style of play.

If he had been on the pre-season, would he have looked less rusty? The analysis, the generally-held opinion, suggests that his decline has been significant from last season. The truth is always somewhere in the middle so let’s say that as he gets older, he gets slower, and the speed of his touch which was once so bewitching now sometimes looks a little clumsy. But he has still got in some good positions in games, there were some where he missed a few decent chances, and that’s a strong enough basis to suggest the instinct is there, so as long as he had the motivation to reinvent himself according to his current strengths, he could have been a significant asset.

The ego is a powerful thing and much of this situation seems to be about the perception of the greatest as opposed to the best. Ronaldo has a fair claim to be the greatest of all time. But he is not currently the best player in the world – Kylian Mbappe has taken that mantle with some conviction – and he is not currently the most effective forward in the Manchester United team, although even at the age of almost 38, he could still have proven to be if he economised.

At a critical time, a time where his ego was hurt because he was an almost 38-year old forced to be reduced to the ignominy of squad rotation, the advice he has received has been indulgent and not for his best interests if he has a serious ambition to compete at the top level.

We all know what happened with Piers Morgan. I think he was misled by Morgan, who used him as he tends to do; he massaged his ego in return for using the most appalling things for clickbait. He massaged his ego knowing the conflict it was likely to cause at Old Trafford; though Ronaldo does not escape the blame, as he was fully aware of what was going on, and he knew the interview was likely to expedite his second exit from United, and likely entered into it with that intention.

Ronaldo did not come out of the interview looking good; the coincidental timing of the club being put up for sale has made some put two and two together and come up with five, but aside from that school of thought, most commonly accept that the player threw the club and his team-mates under the bus, disappointing so many who stood by him.

His hope was that he would have a strong World Cup and have plenty of suitors queuing up to get the hottest free agent in football. It’s not gone that way. In fact, mirroring events at United, he has seen players who likely won’t get within a quarter of his legacy of achievements now proving themselves to be more effective starters. His family have reacted to Portugal’s exit with vigorous defences of their loved one, and that is understandable, but the country were not eliminated because Ronaldo didn’t start against Morocco. If they even tried to convince him that was the case, the reality of the list of clubs willing to take him on as of this week will bring him back to reality in a significantly sobering way.

As much as I feel the player has brought this on himself, I can’t say I take any joy from it. I loved his return, I’ve loved seeing my nephew idolise a footballer and see one of the very greatest in the flesh, I’ve defended – as I did above – his contribution despite that obvious decline. I find the manipulation and creation of arbitrary landmarks specifically designed to make Ronaldo look bad (no World Cup knockout goals now that Messi has one, for example) frankly pathetic.

I did find giving an interview to Morgan and the Sun very crass and I hoped an apology would be forthcoming but I suppose that’s the modern footballer – so out of touch with the roots of the sport and even the area of the country which made him what he was that he feels he owes nobody anything.

Even so, there was a part of me that, because of the relationship I have had with him from a supporter and a footballer point of view, hoped that he would win the World Cup if England didn’t; and now, this morning, I find myself hoping that Argentina don’t, even though going by the way Ronaldo’s month has gone, that’s precisely what will happen. That’s out of loyalty that came from supporting him for six years the first time and fourteen months the second time; loyalty I can’t switch off even if he can, or even if he doesn’t recognise that sort of loyalty from a supporter.

I do wonder if there will be a time – soon or further in the future – where he will take accountability for the Morgan interview, or even blame Morgan for taking advantage, for that is undoubtedly the catalyst for what has been the biggest fall from grace I can remember at the highest level.

Ronaldo was the highest profile player in the game at the highest profile club in the game. He could apply the terminology of being the greatest in the general sense in the way we do about the club, even though we know presently, they are not the best team.

He could have done that by handling this stage of his career with greater dignity; he can take responsibility for that, so too must those who advise him, though perhaps for some of those people the possibility of another lucrative payday is more alluring than the preservation of the player’s legacy which he has fought so hard to create, so for them, it has been better to facilitate the ego-stroking.

Now the most dominant link is a transfer to Saudi Arabia, where even Ronaldo’s star power won’t be enough to get attention on the Saudi Pro League, and at the same time, the status of the league will only facilitate the player sinking into an obscurity his contribution to the game does not deserve.

If he still has an ambition to prove himself at a higher level he will leave himself without a club until the latter stages of January, when someone may be inclined to gamble, but we have seen the natural consequences of what time off does even to a supreme athlete like Ronaldo.

I took no joy in seeing Ronaldo in tears after Portugal’s exit from the World Cup, knowing that was likely the way I was witnessing one of the very best players I’ve ever seen bow out from the elite level that his standard seemed to define for at least a decade.

What I wanted, before the Morgan interview, was Ronaldo the ultra-professional, realising his stature in the game and his responsibility at this stage of his career – I hoped he would help the club get back into the Champions League this season and even maybe win a trophy, I hoped the third year of his contract would be triggered, I even hoped I might see a 40-year old Ronaldo scoring goals at Old Trafford and that he would be a part (albeit a bit-part) player in a squad that was challenging for the title once more.

He didn’t have to go out winning Premier League titles and Champions League medals to protect his legacy. That contribution as outlined above would have put him in the contention for being the greatest United player in history because it would have been that rare occasion of a return going well. He would have set a professional standard for a new generation to follow and, having witnessed the influence that did when Cantona inspired the class of 92, who knows what it could have done for the club. Being considered the greatest player in the history of a club comes with a much more sentimental and emotional backdrop; you consider the story, what they did and how they did it, and their relationship with the club at the same time. In my personal opinion, Ronaldo’s gone from the top of the conversation to maybe top ten or twenty, simply through the conduct of his exit.

Even after the Morgan interview I hoped he would see the marketing, realise he’d been used, and issue a swift apology to limit the damage. No; his exit was acrimonious, as they often are, and it was controversial, as that number 7 shirt sometimes seems to dictate.

United are in the market for a striker, preferably one with Premier League experience.

What if Ronaldo used a different media source – the Athletic, the Guardian – to issue a full apology. To say he took leave of his senses. To show some humility and respect. To say he was wrong to disrespect the manager so publicly.

I’m being mischievous, I apologise; I was thinking of George Best’s unexpected returns and what prompted that chain of events. Now, like then, the club and manager are better off making a clean cut and moving forward. It has done Ten Hag little harm and in fact probably a world of good because he has significant power and we have needed that faith in a manager for so long.

The club will, dutifully and carefully, do their own reparation on Ronaldo’s reputation to try to ensure what he achieved isn’t tainted by the manner of his exit – that is a kindness his conduct scarcely deserves.

By the same token, although many might disagree, I just can’t bring myself to feel joyful that the demise of his top-level career has accelerated with such break-neck speed in front of our very eyes, because I don’t feel that his dedication and contribution to the game for two decades is deserving of that.

He brought that on himself, though, most of you reading will say. And that is true, I can’t argue with that.

It just didn’t have to be this way.