Nottingham Forest star Jesse Lingard has waded into the discussion regarding Cristiano Ronaldo and his Manchester United future.
Some snippets of an interview from the Portuguese star have emerged this week after he sat down with Piers Morgan.
In a warts and all chat with the controversial journalist, Ronaldo stuck the knife into the club and Erik ten Hag.
He claimed that he had zero respect for his manager and basically slammed the Old Trafford giants for how they’ve treated him.
It throws questions marks over the future of the man who was once considered the best player in world football.
Sadly for United offloading him won’t be easy. He earns around £500,000-a-week at the club and finding someone to pay him that will be thankless.
Lingard left Old Trafford after a 10-year association during the summer. He signed for Forest on a one-year deal and is now settling at the club.
He was asked about the Ronaldo situation by TalkSPORT but admitted it wasn’t something he could really comment on.
He said live on air: “It’s his situation, you know what I mean? I dealt with my own situation with the club (Manchester United) and we kept it behind closed doors. We ended on good terms though.
“That’s his situation. I don’t know what’s been said or what’s happened between him and the manager.
“It’s not my place to say, I can’t really comment on something I don’t know too much of. Like I say, it’s his situation and that’s how he’s dealing with it.
“Football is crazy somethings. He must be hurting, but I can’t comment at the moment.”
Lingard has waded into Ronaldo discussion and he’s wise to stay out of it
The Forest man has done well to remain coy here. He seemed to strike up a good rapport with the player last season and clearly, he will have an opinion.
In the media-trained era, however, Lingard has done the right thing here.
Lingard has just started to showcase exactly what he’s all about to the Forest faithful and he must simply concentrate on his football.
One factor to take into consideration regarding this situation is how it might impact Forest.
United’s next game in the Premier League sees them welcome the Reds to Old Trafford and it seems almost certain that Ronaldo won’t be involved now.