Former Manchester United star claims Cristiano Ronaldo return led to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sacking

Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United played a part in the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager.

That's according to former United defender Paul Parker, who believes that it hasn't worked out for Ronaldo back at Old Trafford just yet.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner made a sensational return to United 12-years on from his departure in the summer, as the club ended his Juventus torment in a £13.5million move.

However, the transfer clearly wasn't a part of United's transfer strategy, after already spending £73million on Jadon Sancho, and was done in reaction to the possibility that he could join neighbours Manchester City.

While Ronaldo's form in the Champions League was crucial to their advancement to the knock-out stages, his performances have dipped in the Premier League and he isn't scoring at the rate we have been so used to seeing over the last decade.

United have also struggled throughout the season, which led to Solskjaer's sacking in November and things haven't got much better under interim boss Ralf Rangnick.

Parker believes that Ronaldo's arrival was never going to suddenly turn United into title challengers.

“It hasn't worked out Ronaldo's way but what was he looking for?" he told bettors.co.ke.

"There's no guarantee that he was gonna come back to Man Utd and because he's come back, they're gonna walk away with the league and it was all going to be about him, everyone just saying that Ronaldo's won them the league.

“That wasn't going to happen. United weren't in that shape to go and do that. So surely he must've known that when he signed that it wasn't gonna happen. Common sense surely would have told him that one player isn't going to change the team. One player, who's 36 years old, isn't