Greenwood criticized Ronaldo, was told to ‘tone down his language’

Slowly but surely, Mason Greenwood is back, at least in the media. The Manchester United striker has been cleared of charges for attempted rape, controlling and coercive behavior and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in February by the Crown Prosecution Service, but hasn’t got back in training. The Red Devil’s announced in a short statement that now they will finally conduct an in-house investigation and that they will not comment anymore until everything is done. But that doesn’t mean that the media cannot write anything about the player. New stories appeared about Greenwood, one about Ronaldo and the second about his potential transfer.

In his new article, The Athletic is dealing with Greenwood’s past in Manchester’s ranks and revealed that he used to criticize Cristiano Ronaldo, of all people, while the player was still in Real Madrid. The forward apparently said “he’s dead” when referencing Ronaldo’s perceived decline in playing status. This led to United chiefs instructing him to tone down his language – in a comment they believed showed a lack of maturity from the then-teenager. As we all know, the Portuguese was far from ‘dead’, as he moved to Juventus and Manchester since, ending up playing alongside his ‘critique’ Greenwood. The player’s maturity was also in question in later years, as he was older but not the wiser.

Ten Hag ‘pleased’ for Greenwood, Manchester Women not so much

In 2020, Greenwood and his England teammate Phil Foden are thought to have invited two local women back to their hotel room in Reykjavik, Iceland and broke the Covid rules, and they were both sent home by coach Gareth Southgate. But it was not the first time he did it, as Athletic reports that he would head out driving around south west Manchester during lockdown, while also holding parties at a rented Airbnb address in Salford despite a ban on social gatherings. No formal action was taken by police at the time, but it is claimed that they did visit United’s training center to request that the club keep the player on a tighter leash.

The shadow of Greenwood all over Old Trafford

So far, United are still waging weather to include Greenwood to the first team or not, and that decision will probably wait the end of the season. The internal investigation has not been done yet, and the player was informed that before the final decision, opinions of his teammates, the club’s women football team (they are against him) and the sponsors will be taken into account. The Red Devils also refused a couple of Turkish clubs who wanted to take the player on a loan, while coach Erik ten Hag called the player in February and told him he was pleased by the court’s decision, but that the final decision about his future will be made in club’s offices.