Gary Neville sent out 'world exclusive' tweet minutes before Cristiano Ronaldo's interview

Gary Neville sent out a tweet referencing Cristiano Ronaldo's "world exclusive" interview with Piers Morgan minutes before it aired on Wednesday night.

Part one of Ronaldo's bombshell interview was shown at 8pm on TalkTV and saw Ronaldo double down on criticism of Ralf Rangnick, call out Wayne Rooney and name just three Manchester United teammates who he admires.

Various excerpts were released beforehand to hype up the interview, one of which included Ronaldo laying into Neville, who was his captain for many years at Old Trafford.

The Sky Sports pundit had his priorities elsewhere on Wednesday night though. At 19:34, he urged fans to "tune in for a World Exclusive" at 8pm.

He wasn't talking about Ronaldo's chat, however. Neville was referring to Salford City's FA Cup first round tie with Peterborough United, which was shown live on ITV 4.

The Ammies lost 3-0 at the Peninsula Stadium, with Jack Marriott bagging a brace after Ephron Mason-Clark put Posh ahead in the first half.

In the second part of the interview which Ronaldo requested himself, he accused Neville of criticising him to be "more famous".

Neville had defended Ronaldo on many an occasion but urged United to offload him after his refusal to come on as a substitute against Spurs.

That led to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner completely blanking him live on Sky Sports.

Ronaldo said: "These people can have his own opinion but they don't really know what's going on … it's easy to criticise, I don't know if they have a job in television that they must criticise to be more famous … I think they take advantage.

"It's hard when you see people who were in the dressing room with you criticising you in that way. It doesn't hurt me … but it's not good to listen to that. A little bit disappointing."

Continuing to discuss former teammates Rooney and Neville, Ronaldo said the pair were are "colleagues" rather than friends and added they would not be "having dinner together".

In response, on Tuesday Neville took to Twitter to ask if anyone fancied a dinner.

Featured Image Credit: Gary Neville & Piers Morgan Uncensored

Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United, Gary Neville

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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