Ronaldo and Tevez leaving: A look at the stats

Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez will be playing in different shirts next season. While C. Ronaldo has already found a home at the Santiago Bernabeu, Tevez has yet to find a stadium he will call his home next season. However, he will no doubt be able to pick from a few teams.

On a side note, people are saying that Real Madrid are stupid for paying 80 million Euros for Cristiano Ronaldo. But 80,000 people were at his unveiling. I know for a fact that they didn't get in for free. If Madrid charged 20 Euros per person, not to mention the 3,000 C. Ronaldo #9 shirt that flew off the shelves the first day at 45 Euros a pop, they are on their way to recovering that fee. On a big plus for the seller, Manchester United is getting all 80 million up front.

What does this mean to Manchester United's defense of their Premier League crown? They are coming off a three-peat in the Barclays Premier League and they have never had a four-peat. In their first of the most recent three, 06/07, C. Ronaldo had 17 BPL goals out of 83 for the team. That is 20%. In 07/08, C. Ronaldo could do nothing wrong in England. He scored 31 goals out of 80 Premier League goals, or 38%! Following that incredible season in 08/09, he scored 18 goals out of 68 team goals. That is 26%. These are astounding numbers.

Let us factor in Carlos Tevez now. While he was not at Old Trafford in 06/07, he still contributed quite a bit in his two year stay. He scored 14 goals in 07/08. Unfortunately, Sir Alex Ferguson bought Dimitar Berbatov that in the summer of '08 and Tevez fell out of favor in the 08/09 season, scoring 5 Premiership goals.

Combining their goal scoring efforts, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo scored 85 Premiership goals over three seasons. That's 37% of their Premier League goals they will have to replace. I know Tevez was there for two seasons, but this is looking at the bigger Manchester United three-peat picture.

We have yet to factor in assists. In the three championship seasons, C. Ronaldo and Tevez combined for 37 assists (27 for Cristiano). Along with the aforementioned 85 goals, we will call this having a hand in 122 goals over three seasons. While the total goal output for Manchester United was 231 over three seasons, this means C. Ronaldo and Tevez had a hand in over 50% (52.9) of Manchester United's goal output!!! It will be difficult to replace such important numbers.

Sir Alex is trying to replace these numbers. He signed Michael Owen on a free transfer, and got good deals on wingers Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan. While I'm not sure about either of these 3 players, I am sure that Sir Alex can find a way to get the best out of them. If not, he still has Wayne Rooney, Berbatov, and about 60 million Euros he can possibly get a big name with.

P.S. If I can mention something completely unrelated, the Brazilian Ronaldo finished his season for Corinthians in the Brazilian League with 14 goals in 15 games. Some of you guys might say "It's just the Brazilian league blah blah blah" but whatever. Its the highest level of competition available to him and he is doing well in it. Its the best league in South America as well.