Manchester City Shuts Down Rumors Of Nearly Signing Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo dropped a bombshell during his Piers Morgan interview that he was set to join Manchester City last summer, but the club was not pleased with this supposed revelation.

According to sources close to Manchester City, the club had privately confirmed to ESPN that them being "close" to signing Ronaldo was completely false.

"Manchester City sources have insisted his comments are 'not reflective' of their interest at the time, which has been described as 'mild,'" as per ESPN.

Ronaldo, in the midst of his two-part interview with Morgan, had claimed that speaking with decorated former Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson was the only reason he decided to eventually spurn Manchester City and return instead to Old Trafford.

"Well, honestly, it (joining Manchester City) was close... It's something they spoke a lot and [Manchester City manager Pep] Guardiola said two weeks ago, I guess, that they tried hard to have me," Ronaldo said during the interview.

Manchester United was put on blast by the Portuguese superstar for their hiring of Ralf Rangnick as interim manager, supposedly not upgrading the facilities since he left for Real Madrid in 2009 and going so far as to publicly state that he does not respect current manager Erik ten Hag.

Ronaldo's hurt feelings against ten Hag can be understood as his reaction to being forced to ride the bench as the Dutch manager opted to switch things up since the club's horrendous start to the season which featured a 4-0 loss to current English Premier League 10th placer Brentford.

Manchester United fans could not complain about the change either as the club had found its footing and are currently fifth in the Premier League–just three points behind the Tottenham Hotspurs to potentially secure a UEFA Champions League berth next season.

It was revealed a few days ago that Ten Hag had a meeting with club officials Joel Glazer, chief executive Richard Arnold and director John Murtough to "discuss the fallout" of Ronaldo's interview.

According to ESPN's sources, ten Hag still thinks highly of Ronaldo in the second half of the season if a "fit and motivated Ronaldo" appears.

However, ten Hag is not reportedly not willing to sacrifice the work that he and the entire team has put in for Manchester United's success thus far just to have Ronaldo on the team.

Manchester United is also supposedly listening to legal advice on how to deal with Ronaldo's reputation-damaging statements against the Red Devils.