Ole Gunnar Solskjaer explains exactly why Cristiano Ronaldo's Man Utd return was a failure

Former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been speaking about the club's decision to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo's 2021 return was billed as a fairytale but proved to be anything but, with the relationship breaking down the following year after the superstar gave a media interview criticising the club and the way it was being run.

But before that, the man who helped sign him in Solskjaer was let go, with Ralf Rangnick and then Erik ten Hag having a crack at managing Ronaldo at Old Trafford before his eventual release, with both parties agreeing to terminate the contract.

“It was a very quick decision,” Solskjaer told the Sky Bet’s Stick To Football podcast when asked about the signing of Ronaldo. “We didn’t think Cristiano was available and that he was going to move.

“When it became apparent that he was leaving Juventus, obviously there were other clubs that wanted him – but I was excited. [United] asked me, ‘Would you want us to try this?’. I said yes – obviously we know Cristiano is quality, and he’s 37. But we have to manage – he’s the best goal scorer in the world. It didn’t work out for me, it didn’t work out for Cristiano, but it was the right decision at the time.”

Solskjaer then went on to discuss how the signing of the veteran superstar forced him to change United's system of play. He added: "We started off straight away thinking how we are going to press and change the little tweaks.

“Cristiano is different to Antony Martial who was up front, or whether we would play Mason [Greenwood] or Marcus [Rashford] up front. Edinson Cavani was the one that suffered the most when Cristiano came in – we’d played and got Edinson into a certain way of understanding the way we played.

"Cristiano – when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realised he’s getting older as well. But when you leave him out once, he’s not happy! With the ball, with him in the team, it was no problem. Without him [pressing], we had to change a little bit the different roles we had gotten used to. We were one of the highest pressing teams before [Ronaldo joined]."

Solskjaer concluded: "We let Dan James go when Cristiano came in, and they’re two different types of players. It was the right decision to make for me – it didn’t turn out to be the right one."