Ronaldo: There's history to be made at United

Should he stay or should he go? Ronaldo has unfinished business at United - even if Sir Alex Ferguson's side triumph in Rome

At Manchester United, as long as Sir Alex Ferguson remains manager, there will always be something for which to aim. A fresh peak, a new page in the history book. That is why, as we prepare to enter another Cristiano Ronaldo debating season, the one argument that can be discounted is that he has done all he can at his present club.

Ronaldo insists he will be staying, yet the rumours persist. Certainly, there are a number of men who stand to make many millions if they can facilitate the deal that takes him to Real Madrid, and who therefore have a vested interest in perpetuating the idea that he is unsettled, even if it is untrue.
Yet why should he not wish to do another year at Old Trafford. Indeed, why would he not do another 10? This time last season, the speculation was that Ronaldo wanted to go out on the high of winning the first all-English European Cup final, as if nothing could beat that.

Now here we are, 12 months on, and Manchester United stand on the brink of an even greater achievement: to be the first club to retain the trophy in its modern, Champions League, format. First, they must overcome Barcelona, who have been laying waste to their own record books in Spain.
Top that? Well, incredibly, United could if next season they become the only English club to win four straight league titles. This would bring their total to 19, the most to be won (although Liverpool are now claiming two wartime titles to take their total to 20, which seems even more desperate than some of Rafael Benitez’s most recent press conference pronouncements).
For this team, at this unique moment in history, there is always a new milestone to be passed. In the excitement at theprospect of United retaining the Champions League, it has almost been overlooked that this season they have become the first club to win three consecutive league titles over two periods in history.
Real Madrid have won the Spanish league five times on the turn, so too Juventus and Torino in Italy and Porto in Portugal, but three has long been the ceiling in the English game. Huddersfield Town, Arsenal and Liverpool have done it, and United twice. And, of course, it is hard for somebody from outside the country to be responsive to the saga of the English game spanning three centuries, but every time Ronaldo stepped on the field this season, each time he helped Manchester United to victory, he was becoming part of England’s sporting folklore.
That will be true next season, too, if he can inspire a fourth triumph. With the exception of The Wednesday, every English league champion is still a member of the English league, and bearing the same name, today. Yet none have won it four times consecutively. And, yes, football clubs are about more than black and white columns in books on dusty shelves, they are about people and passion and the emotion Ronaldo clearly experiences when he thinks of Real Madrid.
Yet he may wish to consider why he felt that way, as a boy growing up in Funchal, on the island of Madeira; why he was bewitched by a club that played in a foreign league, in a foreign city, over 900 miles away. And the answer would be that he fell in love with their history, with their achievement, with the legends of special players and special football.
And, if he would only realise, that is what he is creating at Manchester United now. It is why Ronaldo’s work is not yet done, even if he leaves Rome triumphant once more.

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