He shouldn't have returned in the first place, but that was done all because Sir Alex Ferguson called him directly. Yeah, Ronaldo gave Manchester United winners against Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham United scoring Hat tricks against these clubs.
I also think Ronaldo shouldn’t have returned to Manchester United, it wasn’t his idea to return as well as he almost joined Manchester City as Pep Guardiola was already pushing for Ronaldo to sign for him which he almost did but out of the respect Ronaldo has for Sir Alex Ferguson he had to join Manchester United instead and i think he would be regretting his decision to join Manchester United because of all the things he went through there. It would have been a different case if he joined Manchester City as he could have easily won the treble with Guardiola and scored far more goals than he did at United.
For a Legend who has nothing but respect for the club i think he was disrespected far too much by the coach, the fans and some players in the team, they thought he was the problem causing them downfall but where are they now? Barcelona wouldn’t have treated Messi that way if he was to return back. Ronaldo was easily the team’s highest goal scorer despite being one of the oldest in the team if not the oldest but he was the problem.
When you have a player like Ronaldo in your team you just need to make other players work for him and leave him to do what he does best which is scoring goals, you don’t expect a player in his late 30s to still give you what a young player would give you.
I would guess that things would have been different, because Haaland joined as we all know, where are you going to put Ronaldo when you have a monster like Haaland at that team? I do not know if that was the same season or not, I can't remember but I feel like the eventual situation was like that, or maybe they wouldn't get Haaland I don't know, but even City would know that they would have to step away from an aging Ronaldo.
What I really really hoped was Sporting Lisbon, lets be honest Lisbon isn't some amazing team, they do have historical success, but having Ronaldo (even at this age) would be amazing help, both in quality, but also as an example to all the younger players there. That's what I dreamed after he decided to leave United, instead of going where the money was.