Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 6:38 PM• Noel Korteweg

Gary Neville believes there is no going back for Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United. The 37-year-old Portuguese superstar has been a topic of conversation in the media since last week after he strongly criticized his club and Erik ten Hag in an interview with Piers Morgan. Neville believes that a solution must be found quickly, but is very complimentary about the ex-trainer of Ajax.

Ronaldo lashed out at Ten Hag and Ralf Rangnick in the interview in question. British analysts also suffered, including Neville. The former right-back the Red Devils is accused of using Ronaldo’s name to get more attention himself. Neville denies that in conversation with Sky Sports. “Cristiano seems like someone who thinks that everything and everyone is against him and that not everyone likes him. It’s not like that and it shouldn’t be like that.”

Ten Hag and United will use the coming period to decide what consequences they will bind to the much-discussed interview. Neville thinks Ronaldo has already played his last game at Old Trafford. “There is no going back and I don’t think he wants to. If he wanted to stay at United, he wouldn’t have given this interview. This interview marks the end of his career at United.” The former international is, however, complimentary about Ten Hag and thinks that he ‘endured a very difficult first half year perfectly’.

“I don’t think he could have done anything else. Ronaldo is a monster of a player and a monster of a personality. Ten Hag is in a difficult situation because he does not win when he publicly takes on Ronaldo. Those two have a problem because he doesn’t use Ronaldo as a starting player,” Neville continued. “They should have sat down a few weeks ago and said: we don’t respect each other, we don’t like each other, we don’t want to go on like this and need to end it nicely.”

Ronaldo and Ten Hag did not do that because they thought it would be solved automatically, Neville thinks. “But that doesn’t happen in football and certainly not with a personality and a player like Ronaldo. He doesn’t accept that.” The former player thinks it is a painful end for the superstar at United. “It has ended in an unpleasant situation where it seems that Ronaldo will not end his time at United with the greatest honors as he should have.”