Former Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has admitted that Edinson Cavani “suffered most” after he sanctioned Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to the club.
Ronaldo was brought back to Old Trafford in the summer of 2021 from Juventus.
United paid £12.8million for the then-36-year-old forward and he was added to a squad that already had Cavani, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood.
Ronaldo’s return ruffled a few feathers in the United dressing room and didn’t work out for Solskjaer, who was sacked just three months later.
Solskjaer insists he does not regret the decision, but admits the move came with compromises, like those made by Cavani, who had to give up the No.7 shirt for Ronaldo.
“We started off straight away thinking how we are going to press and change the little tweaks,” Solskjaer said on the Stick to Football podcast.
“Cristiano is different to Antony Martial who was up front, or whether we would play Mason or Marcus up front.
“Edinson Cavani was the one that suffered the most when Cristiano came in – we’d played and got Edinson into a certain way of understanding the way we played. Cristiano – when you know him and speak to him, he wanted to play three out of four games, he realised he’s getting older as well. But when you leave him out once, he’s not happy!”