If United's claim to be the world's leading club is not to be mocked, they may have to carry out Ferguson's threat - but will the Glazers continue to back their manager? We shall see. But Ronaldo and those who advise him should not have put the club in this position. Not a year after the signing of a generously improved contract. At 23, he is of an age when it would have done no harm to observe a decent interval. If Real were not willing to allow him to stay at Old Trafford for another year, say, Barcelona would surely have obliged.