Gary Neville Explains The Reason Why He Complained About Cristiano Ronaldo To Man United Coach

Gary Neville has revealed that he complained about Cristiano Ronaldo early on in his Manchester United career because he was too "erratic."

Legendary former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson brought the Portuguese superstar to Old Trafford in 2003 from Sporting CP.

And the 35-year-old Juventus superstar eventually rose to become one of the best players in the world and captured one of his five Ballons d'Or at United.

However, Neville has opened up about the time he vented his frustration about Ronaldo to United's strength and conditioning coach, Mike Clegg.

The United legend was annoyed at his former teammate's struggles to fit into their defensive structure and not delivering when they needed him the most.

But Neville, 45, admitted that he was blown away by his transformation at Old Trafford and the impact of Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz on him.

"Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz, I think it's important to put Carlos Queiroz in the category with Sir Alex, they were both champions of him, they both believed in him," he told Sky Sports.

"I think that he came back from the World Cup that summer it was like everything had changed.

"His maturity and his decision-making, which was a big thing, his experience, his physical attributes had completely changed overnight.

"He went from someone who, if you look at his early pictures at Manchester United, he was scrawny, really thin, wiry, didn't look very strong.

"All of a sudden, I think it was after that 2006 World Cup, he came back like a super-middleweight boxer. His body had just completely transformed, he was absolutely incredible.

"From a strength point of view and a plyometric point of view, the ability to leap, the ability to score with his head, the ability to change direction, everything seems to fall into place. It was just a maturity, physically, mentally, everything happened to him.

"It was brilliant to watch, there was a point I remember going into the gym after one training session and speaking to Mike Clegg, who worked very hard with Cristiano physically in the gym and saying to him, 'I don't know what he's going to do next.'

"You didn't know where he was going to be defensively, you didn't know when he was going to release the ball, players in the middle of the box didn't know when he was going to cross it. It was just erratic.

"But they had great faith in him, Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz, and they believed in him, put him forward in front of players who had greater reputations at the time and he developed into something brilliant."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, Football, Manchester United, red devils, Gary Neville, Old Trafford, Cristiano Ronaldo

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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