Manchester United told to sell Cristiano Ronaldo this summer for 'the greater good'

Jaap Stam says Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave Manchester United for the "greater good" of the club.

The superstar’s future at Old Trafford is unclear, but he has promised to explain all in the next few weeks. He started his first game of the season in the 4-0 rout by Brentford and cut a very frustrated figure on the pitch.

It mirrored images of May’s four-goal humiliation at Brighton, after which Ronaldo was not seen at the club again until late July. He missed the pre-season tour due to family reasons and was benched for the 2-1 opening day loss to the Seagulls earlier this month.

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Among the reasons listed for his exit plea is the absence of Champions League football this season. Stam questions whether it was an issue that Ronaldo could have highlighted to Erik ten Hag earlier and says United cannot keep an unhappy player in a dressing room.

He told safebettingsites.com: "Everybody is looking up to him [Ronaldo]. So if he’s in the dressing room and he really wants to leave and he’s not himself, or he’s sitting there by himself or he’s not in a good mood, then it has an impact on the players, for sure.

“I still believe that a player with his quality is still working very hard, even if you want to leave, because you need to be an example for everybody at this club. He already knew last season that he wasn’t going to be playing Champions League with United, so I assume Ten Hag had a conversation with him before he started.

“I don’t know if Ronaldo addressed it at this point, otherwise I’m thinking they could’ve made a decision earlier, before the season.”

Stam added: “If a player’s not happy at the club and he wants to leave then you need to