Cristiano Ronaldo will remain at Man Utd next season after placing his faith in the club’s hierarchy, according to reports in Spain.
The Portugal star scored a wonderful hat-trick as the Red Devils beat Tottenham 3-2 in the Premier League six days ago but drew a blank as Ralf Rangnick’s side crashed out of the Champions League to Atletico Madrid earlier this week.
Ronaldo has scored 18 goals in 32 appearances this term but, aside from the hat-trick against Spurs, has struggled to hit top form in recent months.
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There have been many rumours that Ronaldo will attempt to leave Old Trafford at the end of the season if Man Utd fail to qualify for the Champions League.
The Red Devils are currently fifth in the Premier League, one point behind fourth-placed Arsenal but the Gunners have two games in hand on Rangnick’s men.
Despite the possibility that they could miss out on Champions League qualification, Spanish publication AS claims that Ronaldo ‘has decided to continue at Old Trafford and trusts in the arrival of a guaranteed coach’.
AS recently reported that Ronaldo has a poor relationship with interim boss Rangnick and now Man Utd ‘considers that they have made a mistake by signing the German’.
Despite speculation he could be off, it is now claimed that Ronaldo has ‘decided to fulfill the remaining year of his contract’ with the Portugal international ‘confident’ Man Utd will get their next choice of coach right and will provide him with the ‘reinforcements to aspire to win the Premier League’.
Former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino and current Ajax manager Erik Ten Hag are understood to be the frontrunners, while Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has emerged as a recent target after Roman Abramovich was recently sanctioned.
Meanwhile, Harry Maguire has urged his Man Utd team-mates to finish the season strong after being knocked out of the Champions League.
“Of course it’s going to be a disappointing couple of weeks now,” Maguire said. “The lads need to go, have a rest but make sure that we come back fighting for the end of the season.
“We’ve got nine important Premier League games that we need to try to win every game that we play in, stick together.
“My job as captain obviously has a big role in that as well and making sure that we stick together and we finish the season strong – because we owe it to the fans.”
