Manchester United legend Gary Neville has become one of the most controversial and significant voices in football and his criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo stands out
Gary Neville confessed to breaching a ‘golden rule’ when he slammed Cristiano Ronaldo’s messy departure from Manchester United.
Neville and Ronaldo won it all when they played alongside each other at Old Trafford between 2003 and 2009. The ex-United captain has become one of the most influential and loud voices in football punditry ever since he retired from the game.
He is particularly vocal on United, especially when things are going wrong. However, he found himself in a difficult position when Ronaldo forced his way out of the club by blasting Erik ten Hag and the rest of the club in an extraordinary interview with Piers Morgan.
Ex-pros generally adhere to a code that dictates players should not call out their former team-mates if they find themselves working in the media. Yet Neville was so frustrated by Ronaldo’s antics that he could not help but speak his mind about the Portuguese star.
While speaking on the ‘It’s Called Soccer’ podcast, Neville said: “Where I was critical of a player that I used to play with and the one time where I have probably broken that sort of… (golden rule) was the Cristiano Ronaldo exit at United.
“It was when he did the interview with Piers Morgan. It’s nothing to do with doing an interview with Piers Morgan. My concern that night was his team-mates had just won that day, Garnacho had scored at Fulham and then the interview came out a few hours later. I just thought the timing of that was really disappointing.
“I thought it was the wrong time to do the interview and probably the wrong way to exit Manchester United. I felt strongly about that, because of his leadership qualities, his stature in the game and the fact that I felt he could be a leader at United and pull that dressing room through.
“Now, it’s not like a ‘Well, he can do whatever he wants and he’s done it and he may think that it was the right thing to do’. But I felt strongly at the time that it wasn’t right.
“Because of the fact that I was a senior player in the dressing room when Cristiano Ronaldo was younger, I felt, ‘No, come on, that’s now how we work, that’s not how you do it’.
“I’ve made mistakes as well. But that’s the one time I can think of where I’ve probably criticised as ex-team-mate, where I’ve thought, ‘No, that’s not right, Cristiano.'”
When asked if he was using his platform to express anger towards the former United No.7, Neville shook his head in disagreement. Instead, he said that he still felt like he could offer guidance, considering he was one of Ronaldo’s leaders at Old Trafford.
Neville added: “I felt it was guidance to say ‘Look, come on mate, you’re wrong there, come on. You know what’s right and wrong’. You go through a lot with each other when you play with each other at United and the demands are high, the expectations are high. I used to cock up a lot and I still make mistakes now on television, but, for me, I thought I have to call it out.”
Ronaldo moved to Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr after his United fallout. He has so far helped himself to 67 goals in just 75 matches for the Saudi Pro League side.
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