Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville is pretty angered by Cristiano Ronaldo’s behaviour towards the club this summer, describing his actions as “unpalatable”.
Ronaldo made his desire to leave the club public just days before the players were set to return for training after their summer break.
Following that, Ronaldo didn’t travel on the club’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia due to "family reasons".
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During United’s tour, Ronaldo remained in Portugal and trained individually while waiting for a club to make an offer, but up till now, no club has shown serious interest to sign him.
The 37-year-old Portuguese legend then returned to Carrington last Tuesday to hold talks with Erik ten Hag.
He then returned to training before making a 45-minute cameo appearance against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
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The forward left Old Trafford early after being replaced, alongside some United players who were not part of the matchday squad, a move that has since been criticised by Erik ten Hag.
Neville, while speaking on The Overlap podcast regarding the whole saga, said “Let me be really clear, Ronaldo’s achievements in football go beyond anything that anybody could ever wish for and imagine.
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"He’ll go down in the top players of all time and always will be, and what happens this summer at Manchester United will be forgotten about in 20 years.
“But it’s unpalatable for me to watch, as an ex-Manchester United captain, an ex-Manchester United senior player, and thinking that at this moment in time the star player in the dressing room is playing up.
“It happened at times over the last few years where you had [Paul] Pogba’s agent – not necessarily Pogba all the time but his agent – always playing up with the club. You can’t have your star player in a club running the shop. You cannot have it.”
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Neville then put his point across regarding Ronaldo as straightforward as he could as he said, “So when Sir Alex Ferguson in the past moved players on, it's because that player needed to be moved on. I know Manchester United fans want Ronaldo to stay. But if Ronaldo wants to leave, Manchester United – in my mind – should facilitate that.”
Neville also expressed his anger at United’s transfer activity and believes Ten Hag hasn’t been supported enough by the club.
“I think he [Ten Hag] has had a really impressive start, a confident start, in spite of the fact that his star player is playing up and he's not being supported off the pitch by an operation that can't get him the players that he wants.
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“If you said to me two months ago that Manchester United would have Fred and [Scott] McTominay in midfield – and I like both of them, I think individually they give their all for Manchester United – and that we'd have [Anthony] Martial up front, who to be fair every Manchester United fan and coach had written off and thought he'd be leaving. He's now our centre forward for the season. I'd say that the manager has been given a tough hand.”
Recently, another Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand went ahead and took a lie detector test to answer his thoughts on Ronaldo.
Topics: Manchester United, Erik Ten Hag, Gary Neville, Cristiano Ronaldo, Premier League, Football
Mudeet Arora