'Ronaldo knew a Man Utd bid was coming'published at 17:53 British Summer Time 27 August 2021
Simon Stone
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live
I'm told that communication with United started to pick up about 48 hours ago. With City, I spoke to them yesterday and they were very much trying to play down this rolling expectation that was building up around them signing him.
This came off the back of them trying to sign Harry Kane and him deciding to stay at Tottenham. I got the sense from City that the deal wasn't as likely as everyone seemed to think it was.
The interesting thing today was that Ronaldo turned up at Juventus' training ground and then left without training. The Juve coach gave a press conference 45 minutes before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave his and he said that Ronaldo had come into the club, said he didnt want to play for them anymore and then left.
You can't do that unless you have somewhere to go and I think Ronaldo knew at that point that Manchester United were going to come in for a bid which would be accepted.
Solskjaer hinted in his press conference that if Cristiano wanted to leave, he knew where Man United was.
I'm told the deal is 15m euros with the potential of another 8m in add-ons and it's all done. All that needs to happen now is a medical and contracts need to be signed. That's how quick these things can happen when you know it's going to happen.