Manchester United Transfer News: Latest Cristiano Ronaldo, Thomas Muller Rumours

Bayern Munich legend Franz Beckenbauer has questioned the ability of the Premier League to attract the world's best players and alluded to Manchester United's failure to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and Thomas Muller as proof.

Real Madrid star Ronaldo and Bayern Munich attacker Muller were both reportedly United targets in the summer transfer window, but neither move materialised, per Jack de Menezes in the Independent.

Beckenbauer believes that, despite the huge wealth in the Premier League—English top-flight clubs spent over £1 billion buying players in 2015—the division is unable to attract the best footballers in the world, per Bild (h/t the Mirror's Alex Richards): 

"They can't buy everyone. Most importantly, they can't buy [Lionel] Messi, Ronaldo, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and our Thomas Muller. They don't have any among the best in the world. We still have great footballers in Germany."

Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press

However, French football writer Frederic Hermel has reported United have a "great chance" of signing Ronaldo in the summer of 2016, per French outlet Le 10 Sport (h/t the Express' Charles Perrin).  

Hermel said he has "strong sources" stating that the 30-year-old Ronaldo will leave the Bernabeu at the end of the season—despite his contract not expiring until 2018—and could move to United, Paris Saint-Germain or Major League Soccer, per Le 10 Sport (h/t Perrin).

Ronaldo moved from Old Trafford to Real in 2009 for a then-world-record transfer fee of £80 million.

The last time the Premier League had a player in the top three for the Ballon d'Or, Ronaldo came second to Messi in 2009—the year after he won the award in United's last Champions League-winning year.

Since then, the podium has been exclusively made up of Primera Division and Bundesliga stars, perhaps an indication Beckenbauer is onto something in claiming the Premier League can no longer attract the best players.

The return of Ronaldo to Old Trafford would be a major coup for the Red Devils despite the fact the Portuguese is now heading into the twilight of his career.

However, it seems highly unlikely given Ronaldo's continued importance at Madrid—he has netted a combined eight goals in his last two games.

As noted by Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, Ronaldo remains the most devastating forward in world football:

As with 26-year-old Muller at Bayern—who has already netted six league goals in four Bundesliga games this season, per WhoScored.com—it would be an odd for Ronaldo to make a switch to United, where he would be far less likely to win trophies.

United are slowly building back up to a position of prominence in the Premier League, but their European status has fallen off since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.

The same is arguably true of the Premier League, which so regularly had three or four teams featuring at the business end of the Champions League in the late 2000s but recently saw three of its four competitors lose their opening group games in Europe's top club competition.

However, money talks in football, and United have plenty of it. If they are prepared to splash out huge money to buy back Ronaldo, they may succeed, but it seems unlikely.