Gary Neville: 'Manchester United must sell Cristiano Ronaldo this summer'

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has called on the Red Devils to sell Cristiano Ronaldo before the end of this summer's transfer window.

The Portugal international is believed to have told the club at the start of July that he wanted to leave this summer in order to continue playing in the Champions League.

Man United have thus far resisted his exit, though, while there appears to be a lack of genuine suitors for the 37-year-old, with Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain all deciding against a move.

Napoli, Atletico Madrid and Sporting Lisbon are the latest clubs to be linked with the forward, and his agent Jorge Mendes is said to still be working on a possible exit.

Ronaldo had allegedly hoped that he would have left the club by the start of the new Premier League campaign, but he could now be in the squad for Sunday's clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.

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The Portuguese might now be considered for a start against Brighton, despite only playing 45 minutes of football in pre-season, with Anthony Martial set to miss the contest due to a hamstring issue.

However, there have also been claims that Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag could bring in Anthony Elanga to play alongside Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho due to Ronaldo's lack of action during pre-season.

Neville has said that it is vital that the 20-time English champions move the former Sporting Lisbon youngster on before the transfer deadline for the good of the club.

"It's unpalatable for me to watch, as an ex-United captain, an ex-United senior player, thinking that the star player in the dressing room is playing up," Neville said on The Overlap.

"It happened at times over the last few years where you had Paul Pogba's agent - not necessarily Pogba all the time but his agent - always playing up with the club.

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"You can't have your star player in a club running the shop. You cannot have it. We know [Ronaldo] can't do [high pressing] - and the way in which he wants to play on the ball, I'm not sure he fits into Ten Hag's way.

"When that statement came out that Ronaldo wants to leave and then the Monday morning I think something else came out - I'm not sure the club were even aware.

"The timing was horrific coming into the start of the season, it undermined Ten Hag straight away - it meant that Ten Hag literally has had every single press conference that he does is just obliterated by the Ronaldo issue.

"I think looking back, Pep [Guardiola], [Jurgen] Klopp, [Antonio] Conte, Sir Alex Ferguson – if a player becomes the dominating factor, and a distraction in the press conference for a manager, there's only one thing that has to happen. We all know it."

Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford from Juventus last summer and scored 24 goals in 37 appearances for the Red Devils during the 2021-22 campaign, including 18 in the Premier League.

However, Man United finished down in sixth position in the table, meaning that they will play in the Europa League this season rather than in the Champions League.