Gary Neville is pleased to see how Erik ten Hag has handled Cristiano Ronaldo this season but he hit out at Man Utd for a lack of “proactive leadership”.
Ten Hag’s first few months of the Premier League season have been dominated by speculation surrounding the future of Ronaldo after he requested a transfer in the summer.
Ronaldo’s lack of game time under Ten Hag came to a head last month when the Man Utd striker refused to come off the bench in a 2-0 victory over Tottenham.
Ten Hag fined Ronaldo and made him train alone before the Portugal international apologised and was back on first-team duties the following week.
His manager even made him captain in a 3-1 loss to Aston Villa early this month and their relationship seeemed back on track until Sunday evening.
Talk TV released snippets of an interview between Ronaldo and Piers Morgan before airing the first part of the full interview last night with more to come this evening.
Ronaldo insisted he had no respect for Ten Hag and that he felt “betrayed” by Man Utd in an astonishing attack on numerous people inside the club.
Neville, who has praised Ten Hag’s professionalism this season, told Sky Sports: “I think Erik ten Hag has handled a very difficult first six months at United perfectly. I don’t think he could have done anything differently.
“Cristiano Ronaldo’s a monster of a player, a monster of a character, with a massive reach. He’s been in a bit of a difficult position because if he publicly takes him on, he’s probably not going to win.
“Privately, we know he has problems with Ronaldo because he keeps leaving him out. But Ronaldo, Ten Hag, the executives, sporting directors, owners, they should have got in a room a few weeks ago and said, ‘We don’t respect each other, we don’t like each other, we don’t want this to continue so let’s end it properly’. They’ve not done that – there’s not been proactive leadership. They’ve shied away from it thinking it’s going to be OK but that doesn’t happen in football, particularly when you’re dealing with such a big character. Ronaldo’s not going to accept that.
“When you’re a player, you do suffer from a bit of paranoia at times, when you think everyone’s against you. Not everyone’s against Ronaldo. In fact, he’s much loved in this city. Even if people are offering criticism of him, deep down they will still have enormous respect and love for him as a player, and for what he’s done for the…
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