Cristiano Ronaldo 'admits he's fed up with Rafa Benitez', but would he really leave?

The former Liverpool, Chelsea and Inter Milan boss took over at the Bernabeu in the summer, and rumours of discontent - and animosity between the club's star player and its new coach - did not take long to surface.

[REPORT: Cristiano Ronaldo labels Benitez training drill 's***']

And now a report emanating from Spanish television claims that Ronaldo is heartily sick of Benitez's notoriously quirky ways of running his teams.

Manchester United have reportedly made efforts to bring Ronaldo back to Old Trafford in recent seasons, but the player has always insisted he is happy and wishes to stay at Real Madrid.

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Yet doubt has been cast on that in recent times. Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague claimed last week that "there is a strategy in place from his people and it looks like this could be the last season of Ronaldo at Real Madrid. It also looks as though Real Madrid aren’t completely unhappy that this is the case...

"Perhaps Real Madrid believe he has peaked," Balague added, before going on to shatter United fans' hopes by insisting that Real Madrid will sell to PSG rather than Manchester United.

We're not quite sure just where all this is coming from. Ronaldo said plainly and publicly that he wants to retire at Real Madrid - indeed, he said that it was his "dream" - but wishful thinking is a powerful stimulant to the imaginations of football's often-self-proclaimed experts. There are no doubt plenty of people who think it would be - for want of better words - fun, or cool, to see Ronaldo move on, whether that involves returning to Manchester or going elsewhere.

But the deal would make absolutely no sense for Real, at least not now. Ronaldo might have been patchier than normal so far this season, but he still has six goals and two assists in La Liga to his name, plus a further five goals in the Champions League. That's hardly any cause for concern.

And you also have to factor in that the next Real Madrid presidential election campaign is in 2017. Should Ronaldo be sold next summer and go on to a barnstorming season elsewhere then Florentino Perez can kiss goodbye to any hope of re-election, and there's simply no way that Real's canny president would do anything to make that a possibility.