Rangnick discusses Ronaldo’s future

Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has said Cristiano Ronaldo’s future will be decided in due time but insisted it’s important to find out what the player wants. 

The German further admitted he expects the club to be in the market for new strikers. 

The Portuguese international’s future has become the subject of debate in recent weeks after reports suggested incoming manager Erik ten Hag was not keen on working with him. 

Ronaldo has arguably been United’s best player this season, scoring 23 goals in all competitions so far, including Thursday night’s equaliser against Chelsea. 

“This is something that we should speak about between Erik and the board and myself. Cristiano has another year of contract,’ Rangnick said in his post-match conference. 

“It is also important to find out what he wants, if he wants to stay.”

In a separate interview with Sky Sports, he stressed: “In the end, it’s both Erik’s and also Cris’s decision what they want to do. It is not for me to speak about that but, today, the performance of Cris was really great.”

Ronaldo has scored eight of the club’s last nine Premier League goals, further underlining his importance. 

“We have to still be fair with the players,” he stated. “We had quite a few other players scoring goals, I remember, in my first 10 games, we had 10 different goalscorers. It is how many opportunities can we create and how many goalscorers.

“Right now, we very much rely on Cristiano, he also showed a good performance when Chelsea were in possession. But there has to be a focus on bringing in a couple of new strikers for sure.”

Rangnick is set to step down from his role at the end of the current season, with Ajax’s Ten Hag taking over the reins.