Cristiano Ronaldo has sensationally presented himself as the man who will change Manchester United.
Despite receiving a hero's welcome upon his return in 2021, Ronaldo's second spell in the Premier League would come to a bitter end.
After a public row with Erik ten Hag, Ronaldo would subsequently make a series of explosive claims in a television interview in which United terminated his contract.
In the two years since then, much has changed at Old Trafford, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Group taking control of football operations after years of fan unrest under the Glazer regime, and Ten Hag sacked in October.
However, while reconstruction behind the scenes has undergone a significant overhaul, difficulties on the field remain.
Ronaldo's former Portugal teammate Ruben Amorim was chosen to succeed Ten Hag in the hope that he could shape the team he inherited in the shape of his progressive philosophy with which he had enjoyed so much success at Sporting Lisbon.
Results on the pitch have yet to improve, however, as the 2-0 defeat to Wolves on Thursday only continued the club's worst start to a Premier League season.
Speaking at the Globe Soccer Awards ceremony on Friday, Ronaldo insisted that Amorim is not to blame for United's current crisis and that a major overhaul would be needed for the club to return to its former glory.
“(The) Premier League is the most difficult league in the world,” he said.
'All teams are good, all teams fight, all teams run, all teams are strong. Football is different now. There are no easy games anymore.
'They need, I said it a year and a half ago, and I will continue to say it: the problem is not the coaches, it's like… I always give this example… it's like an aquarium.
'If you have the fish inside and it is sick and you take it out, solve the problem and put it back in an aquarium, you will get sick again.
'Manchester United's problem is the same. The problem is not always the coach. It's much more than that.'
Before his acrimonious exit in 2022, Ronaldo had openly criticized the state of the infrastructure surrounding United.
Reports at the time claimed that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was astonished that the club's training base in Carrington had not changed in the decade since his initial departure.
In particular, Ronaldo complained about the state of the venue's swimming pool, claiming that “loose, chipped and missing tiles” posed a danger to players and insisted that he would not use the facilities until they had been renovated.
Ronaldo's discontent was such that he joined a local luxury gym, surprising customers with his presence at the £255-a-month Knutsford facility.
As well as highlighting the problems he believes have caused the club to stagnate in recent years, Ronaldo also made the bold claim that he could personally fix the problems.
He continued: “If I am the owner of the club, I will set the record straight and correct whatever is wrong there.”
