Brendan Rodgers told to "get rid" of Ronaldo in first move as Man Utd boss

Brendan Rodgers has been told to "get rid" of Cristiano Ronaldo in his first move as Manchester United boss if he is appointed their next manager.

That is the view of former West Ham United striker Carlton Cole, who feels Rodgers should instead look to build for the future if he were to move to United.

Rodgers is one of a number of managers linked with replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Old Trafford after the Norwegian was sacked on Sunday morning.

Zinedine Zidane, Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag have all been linked with the United job since Solskjaer's dismissal.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Cole said: “Leicester fans are going to hate me for this one but I feel Brendan Rodgers could go in and I feel he would be the right man for the Man United job.

“Get rid of Ronaldo, he’s going to have to usher him out. The reason why, because if you have someone like Brendan he wants to build for the future.

“They’ve got a few prospects in that team that have not even played yet, very good players, and there’s talk of Jude Bellingham coming in as well.

“You’ve got to plan for the future – is Ronaldo the future of Man United?

“We know how he wants to play, Brendan Rodgers, he loves the high press, he loves the high energy, working off the ball, he loves that.

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“He’ll eradicate the players that are not fitting into that formation or system, he has to otherwise he’s going against his own morals.”

Ronaldo returned to United in the summer, 12 years after being sold to Real Madrid in 2009 for a then world record fee.

Since coming back to the club, the 36-year-old has so far scored nine goals in 13 matches this season, but did miss a huge chance at 2-1 in Saturday's defeat to Watford.

Cole went on to say that while Ronaldo is always going to get goals for United, playing to his strengths does not suit United.

“He’s always going to get a goal, but you need to play to his strengths and playing to his strengths is not playing to Man United’s strengths," added Cole.

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“Man United need to be a high pressing team, they need energy, they had that going on last season to be honest, they had it.

“Then coming into this season and getting Ronaldo, you’re not going to turn down Ronaldo if he’s going to come to you so they have to ride it.

“Ole, I don’t think he’s figured it out how to go back to last season and add Ronaldo to build for the future.

“Ronaldo is the main man now and he’s scoring all the goals and important ones as well, but it’s not helped him at all, getting into this season with Ronaldo. This season has not been good for United.”

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