He never was ‘not one of the best’; just was benched a lot and a bit out of confidence during his last spell at Man Utd. I think most elite teams would happily take him and some of them would even have him as a starter; for example, I think right now he would be perfect for Milan, Atlético or even PSG, if he were to accept smaller wages.
I know about them just fine, the difference is that they hardly broke a sweat until the two Milans resurrected, apart from the occasional Napoli and Dortmund side here and there.
City, on the other hand, won 2 of their last 5 by 1 single point. And the last one, they were in second place for most of the tournament. PL has pushed them to the limit all these years and it would be understandable if they wanted to take it easy for once.
Messi over Sneidjer 2010
Not over Sneijder but over Milito IMO; seriously, if they gave it to Benzema for being a savage in the UCL knockouts, then Milito was that and more, even scored in the final and on the last matchday of Serie A to give Inter the league. And what does he get for that? Nothing. Not even a nomination.
Or Salah honestly; took Liverpool to the final and to top 4 in PL, scoring like crazy and playing his best football yet.
Reus, Zanetti, Gerrard, Muller, etc.
Both were Ronaldo’s sidekick and then stepped out of his shadow to replace him almost completely, but Rooney had more goals and Benzema had strange seasons where he missed a lot.
The other difference is that Rooney became the main man immediately after Cristiano left, especially from 2010 to 2012 when he didn’t have Van Persie yet. For Benzema, it took a little more, but when he did, he was an animal.
Inter is obviously a supergiant club too, make it 8.
This is the part I don’t agree with; this is what most online Man Utd fans say everytime they lose or draw:
“We’re so crap, this was such an easy match to win, it was x player fault, Glazers out!”. It’s all they can say…
I mean, how about respecting your rival for once. Ever since they announced the group stage, they thought they were in the round of 16 already. Some clowns like Mark Goldbridge even tipped them as favorites to win this UCL.
Seriously, if you never saw any danger in a team with Ziyech, Icardi, Torreira, Zaha, Muslera, etc, is because you’re either a delusional or an arrogant fan. And now look, you might not even go to Europa League.