Former England international Gabby Agbonlahor believes the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United was a “mistake” by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the club should look to sell him this summer.
Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford at the start of the season to much fanfare and he’s been the goalscoring catalyst in an otherwise disjointed campaign for the club, bagging 14 goals in 21 appearances across all competitions, including some crucial match-winners.
However, there has often been much debate about Ronaldo’s impact on the style of the team and whether the progress of Mason Greenwood has taken a hit because he’s been shuffled out wide to accommodate the Portuguese superstar, netting just five goals so far this season.
Ronaldo has continued to silence his critics by scoring goals, and some very important ones at that, but they were not enough to keep Solskjaer in a job, with the club legend dismissed from his role in November, while his successor, Ralf Rangnick, has just started to come under the spotlight.
Limp displays away to Newcastle and a recent 1-0 defeat at the hands of Wolves has drawn further concerns from the Old Trafford terraces, and Agbonlahor — who featured nearly 400 times for Aston Villa — believes Ronaldo’s summer arrival may be part of the problem.
“You’ve seen the difference in Fernandes since Ronaldo has come in,” he told Football Insider.
“Before Ronaldo came in, Fernandes was the main man. Now Ronaldo’s the main man.
“There’s going to be tension there. If you look at the whole situation, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will know he made a mistake by bringing Ronaldo in, simple as that.
“Yes, Ronaldo has scored but he’s scored goals that Greenwood would have scored, Rashford would have scored in that position.
“For me, I would let Ronaldo go in the summer. Let Greenwood, Sancho and Rashford play together.”