Manchester United have been advised to part ways with Cristiano Ronaldo this summer once Eric ten Hag becomes the club’s new manager.
The Red Devils are expected to bring in Ten Hag as their long-term replacement for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and it could mean a big reshuffle in the playing squad as well.
Jamie Carragher has praised Man Utd for a brave decision to go for Ten Hag over some other bigger and more experienced names, and now wants to see the club making braver decisions in the transfer market as well.
The former Liverpool defender believes Ronaldo is one big name who should be axed, along with midfielder Paul Pogba, though the France international is edging closer to becoming a free agent this summer anyway.
Choosing to sell Ronaldo, however, would be quite a statement from the new manager, with the legendary Portuguese forward only returning to United for a second spell last summer, and performing pretty well despite this team’s general struggles, and despite recently turning 37.
If Ronaldo were to be one of the first casualties of the Ten Hag era, it could risk backfiring spectacularly, though Carragher suggested it should happen.
“They’ve always gone with the established name if you like in terms of Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal. They went with Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer], who was the easy choice,” Carragher told CBS Sports, as quoted by the Metro.
“The brave choice would have been not to go with Ole because he had such a good time to start with as a caretaker.
“So what I mean by this is he’s not managed at a big club and he is seen as this up-and-coming coach, ‘he’s new, he’s fresh’ and Pochettino’s not, he’s actually older than Pochettino, which some people don’t seem to actually know.
“I don’t think he’s getting picked for the fact of just what he’s done for Ajax in terms of being successful because you expect that at Ajax.
“But what they’ve done in the Champions League in terms of getting to the semi-final, how they play their football, their performance in the group stage this season.
“They’ll be disappointed to go out to Benfica but I think it’s a brave choice because I do think Manchester United now need to start making brave decisions, and some of them about the players as well, in terms of Pogba and Cristiano Ronaldo need to go.”