Former Arsenal star, Paul Merson, has claimed Manchester United must offload Cristiano Ronaldo if they want to close the gap on their Premier League rivals.

Ronaldo has informed the Red Devils that he wants to leave for a Champions League club.

But so far, the 37-year-old is yet to get any offers to leave Old Trafford.

New United boss, Erik ten Hag, has made it clear he expects the Portugal captain to fulfil his contract, but Merson believes that stance will prove detrimental to the team.

Ronaldo has told you what he wants, so why hang onto him? Man United have got to draw the line and get rid of him if they really want to catch Man City and Liverpool.

If they can make him out to be the bad one, I think they’ve had a result. In all honestly, I don’t think he does them any favours anyway. People say he got 24 goals last season but Man United never looked like winning anything.

“It’s alright him doing that but it’s like a snooker player making 147s every game but never winning a tournament,” Merson wrote in his Daily Star column