Ronaldo would have thwarted Guardiola’s transfer plan at Man City

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo is the antithesis of an archetypal Manchester City signing under Pep Guardiola.

Ronaldo's interview with Piers Morgan sent shockwaves around the footballing world, and less than four hours after Alejandro Garnacho's 93rd-minute winner against Fulham hit the back of the net, clips surfacing of the 37-year-old's upcoming interview deflected the attention away from a United victory as he put himself in the spotlight once again.

Ronaldo criticised almost every level of the club, including Erik ten Hag, the Glazers, former teammates and the current facilities. Regardless as to whether he has a point surrounding some of these issues, both the timing and the manner of the comments are nigh-on unforgivable.

Ronaldo's decision to admit, or at least claim, how close he was to joining City was one of the most controversial things to come out of the interview.

He told Morgan: "Well, honestly, it was close. It's something they spoke [about] a lot and [Pep] Guardiola said two weeks ago, I guess, that they tried hard to have me.

"But as you know, as my history [was] in Manchester United, your heart, your feeling... make the difference. And of course, as well, Sir Alex Ferguson. I was surprised... but it was a conscious decision. Because the heart speaks, speaking loud in that moment. I think [Ferguson] was the key. It was the difference in that moment, but I cannot be loyal if I will, I wouldn't say that Manchester City wasn't close.

"I spoke with him [Ferguson]. He said to me that, 'It's impossible for you to come to Manchester City'. And I say, 'OK, Boss'. So I took the decisions and... it was a good decision."

City have distanced themselves from those claims, yet anybody who has been watching the club's transfer activity since Guardiola arrived at the Etihad would have been able to tell you that they would have been incredibly reluctant to sanction a deal for Ronaldo in any case.

When City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was asked how Guardiola will bridge the gap between the academy and the first-team back in 2016, his response told all you needed to know about their transfer policy going forward.

He said: "That's one of the reasons why Pep was so highly considered by us. That's really the ethos that we have at Manchester City that I think Pep actually believes to the bone.

"He has done that with Barcelona, he's done that with Bayern Munich. Even with the abundance of talent that he had in both respective first teams, Pep always has a knack for talent. He loves to find young players that have incredible talent. He finds that talent, he nurtures it and you find them evolve and really succeed in both respective first-team experiences that he's had at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Today at our club we have that.

"We are competitive with a lot of talent across all age levels going all the way to the EDS [Elite Development Squad] and Pep will enjoy that and will find a lot of gems that we're going to produce out of that."

Since Guardiola joined, City have not signed a single outfield player over the age of 27, with only Kyle Walker, Riyad Mahrez and Manuel Akanji being that age at the time they moved to the Etihad - every other signing, apart from goalkeepers, has been 26 or younger.

The Blues may well have shown an interest in signing Ronaldo, albeit a mild one, but the 37-year-old goes against the very core of the transfer strategy that the club have built since Guardiola's arrival. Yes, they are not afraid to spend big on superstars, but they simply do not spend big on players that are approaching, or are already in, the twilight years of their careers.

Ronaldo is undeniably one of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game, but he is a signing that would have undermined City's transfer policy at its very foundations.