Cristiano Ronaldo went on Piers Morgan and self-immolated

Ronaldo claims to love Manchester United, but he’s got a funny way of showing it

There are only two possibilities regarding Cristiano Ronaldo’s interview with Piers Morgan, and neither of them are good: He either thinks it will make him look better, or he doesn’t care how bad he looks.

Ronaldo, currently struggling with any hint of an idea he’s no longer the player he was in 2010, decided to self-immolate on Morgan’s TalkTV show in an apparent attempt to force his way out of Manchester United.

The problem, among many with this particular interview, is that in order to force his way out, Ronaldo has to have somewhere to go. And who would want the kind of player who flames his coach, his club, and, yes, himself, in such spectacular fashion?

Tears with Piers

Ronaldo decided it would be beneficial to say of his current head coach Erik ten Hag: “I don’t have respect for him because he doesn’t show respect for me, If you don’t have respect for me, I’m never going have respect for you.”

Really, would anyone blame Ten Hag if he did see some of his respect for Ronaldo ebb away recently? This is a player who has now not once, but twice left the stadium in the middle of a game this season.

The most galling of Ronaldo’s statements though, was when he was asked if the club was trying to force him out.

“Yes. Not only the coach, but the other two or three guys around the club. I felt betrayed,” the 37-year-old said.

“People should hear the truth. Yes, I feel betrayed. Some people don’t want me here not only this year, but last year too.”

Of course, Ronaldo is the one who has transparently been trying to force his way out for months. The problem, as mentioned, is it’s hard to offload a disgruntled former superstar who still thinks he’s Ballon d’Or quality and makes £500,000 per week.

The timing of the Morgan interview was obviously premeditated. Ronaldo is leaving for the World Cup and, with several weeks before he returns to United, he must be hopeful that an exit can be engineered in the meantime.

But the timing looked even worse after events earlier in the day.

Alejandro Garnacho, nearly 20 years Ronaldo’s junior, scored a dramatic late winner against Fulham to keep United in the top-four race on Sunday. The Argentine looks like a possible future superstar, the kind of player Ten Hag can build his project around.

Later in the day, United wasn’t basking in the glow of a big win, but instead scrambling to contain the fallout from the damage wrought by its former superstar.

“I love Manchester United, I love the fans, they’re always on my side,” Ronaldo said.

He may claim to love United, but the last few months have shown Ronaldo loves Ronaldo more. And about the fans being on his side? That may have been the case before but sooner or later, Ronaldo will be forced to understand the world he occupies has changed.

[lawrence-related id=8566,6173,5593]

John Daly: ‘I begged Greg Norman to let me be on the LIV tour’

John Daly on the LIV Series: “It’s a big party, they play for a lot of money.”

John Daly was a guest on the Piers Morgan Uncensored show and shortly into the six-minute interview, revealed he really wanted to be a part of the LIV Golf Invitational Series, the breakaway league offering huge signing bonuses, giant purses, 54-hole tournaments and no cuts so that every golfer gets something for their efforts. And Daly wasn’t shy about it.

“I begged Greg Norman to let me be on the LIV tour,” he said.

He went on to explain how much better he thinks the LIV circuit is compared to the PGA Tour or even the PGA Tour Champions, where Daly spends most of his playing time now.

“I played with Brian Harman in a practice round, and with some other guys in some of the practice rounds at the British Open and it’s like, we play pro-ams, we get it. OK. That’s what is the backbone of a lot of our tournaments. But, Brian Harman says, give us a box of chocolates for the effort.

“I play two to three pro-ams every week on the Champions tour and we don’t play for a lot of money on the Champions tour so I almost feel like, ‘OK, I’m not getting a lot out of this. What are we doing?’

“Look, I’d rather play with amateurs than the pros sometimes but we’ve gotta get compensated for that. The LIV tour is giving players that. They play pro-ams, it’s a big party, they play for a lot of money, which these guys that are on that tour, deserve that money. And I think there’s a lot of other guys that deserve that money.

And then using both hands to point to himself, Daly said: “Especially this old man.”

Morgan then mentioned a piece he wrote for the New York Post about the hypocrisy of morality in sports “and a lot of the PGA sponsors, for example, do lots of business in the middle east.”

He then asked Daly his opinion on hypocrisy in sports, particularly golf.

“Piers, let’s not talk about that. They don’t want to be mentioned in that because of, you know, all the labor laws and stuff. It’s unbelievable. The politics is so stupid in this. I could talk about Nike, I could talk about other companies. Little eight-year-olds are building shoes for Nike. OK. We don’t want to get into that, right? You want to talk about labor laws. We’re talking about golf. Guys that are playing golf. It’s an international sport.

“The Prince of Saudi Arabia is a great guy and he’s given so much money to golfers that deserve it. Well, there are some that aren’t deserving [motions to himself again] because I should be on that tour.”

Daly admitted he’s too old but also seemed to indicate that perhaps Norman may not be inviting any more golfers to LIV.

“Greg says he’s not doing anymore.”

Daly went on to say that Bryson DeChambeau told him at the Open Championship that LIV Golf “is the greatest thing on earth. We still play a pro-am. … we play for a lot of money, which we deserve to play for.”

Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]