Cristiano Ronaldo to Stay at Manchester United, Says Alex Ferguson

Today Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson announced that Cristiano Ronaldo, the club's star player, will be remaining at Old Trafford. Uncertainty about the Portuguese winger's future has added fuel to rumours for months. The question now is, if Ronaldo is to stay, how do he and United progress from here?

It is not the first summer that there has been intense speculation about Ronaldo moving away from Manchester.

Following the 2006 World Cup, in which he played a controversial part in England's quarterfinal stage defeat to Portugal, the majority of football pundits and fans believed that Ronaldo's position at United was untenable, such was the anger directed at the "winker." Videos of Man Utd fans burning their Ronaldo No. 7 jerseys even surfaced on various video sharing websites.

Despite all that, Ronaldo was persuaded to stay. He went on to enjoy his most productive two seasons at Old Trafford, culminating in claims from many quarters that he was the best footballer in the world.

Ronaldo re-captured the hearts of Red Devils followers, while also converting those who previously had seen him as an over-hyped show pony. 

Now, though, the situation is different. Ronaldo has allowed the tabloid speculation to go on for far too long, rarely expressing any desire to stay at Old Trafford and even boldly declaring that he "didn't care" about the opinions of his mentor Ferguson or anyone else.

Rather than accepting that he owed it to United fans to see out his contract, he publicly stated his happiness with FIFA President Sepp Blatter's assertion that Man Utd were treating him like a "modern slave" and that the club owed him his "dream move" to Real Madrid.

It is this attitude that has done real damage to Ronaldo's reputation in England.

In a country in which the continued failure of the national team is causing football fans to become increasingly disillusioned with the modern day football excesses of bling, cars, WAGs, and magazine deals, Ronaldo's claims that his wages of £120,000 per week make him United's slave incite near universal vitriol.

Whatever a player's achievements, the mantra in England is "no player is bigger than the club." At a proud club such as Manchester United, this belief is stronger than anywhere else, and for many Devils fans what offends most is the implication that their club is smaller than the Spanish champions Real Madrid.

The accusations flying between the managers and executives have been a sideshow. The real issue is the attitude of the player himself.

Now, if Ronaldo is to stay at United, will the marriage be any more than temporary, with his standing at the club done irreparable damage? Will the chemistry between he and his teammates be affected considering his behaviour?

Or will this situation prove to be no different than the last time, with the United fans and staff forgiving and forgetting once their mercurial number seven starts scoring in the famous red shirt once again?