Gary Neville says Man Utd youngster ‘finished me mentally’ in Ronaldo comparison
Gary Neville claimed former Manchester United full-back Rafael ‘finished my career mentally’ when he first broke onto the scene at Old Trafford.
Neville made 601 appearances for the Red Devils over the course of nearly 20 years at Old Trafford. He won two Champions League titles, 12 Premier League, four FA Cups, and three League Cups, entrenching himself as one of the most important players to ever come through the academy at Old Trafford.
However, the now Sky Sports pundit eventually had to step aside as younger, fresher talent began to be brought through by Sir Alex Ferguson. And while talking about the current saga engulfing Cristiano Ronaldo and current manager Erik ten Hag, Neville believes the iconic No.7 is facing the same predicament he faced ten years ago.
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“There were moments in my career where I thought, ‘Rafael’s gone in, John O’Shea’s gone in, Wes Brown’s gone in'… I watched Brown play a full season and win a Champions League,” Neville said on Sky Sports News. “[Brown] He’s a great lad, brilliant player, and I was delighted for him, [but] of course I wanted to be in the team, of course I wanted to be out there and be captain, but I wasn’t.
“Then Rafael came into training, it was Rafael who actually finished my career mentally, in some ways, because I used to watch him in training, get close to players and snap into tackles, and then get up and get back out there again, and I couldn’t get my legs forward. I thought, ‘I get it, I see it’.”
Fast forward to the present day, Ronaldo currently finds himself at the centre of a storm, having recently refused to come on as a substitute for Ten Hag, before walking down the tunnel and out of Old Trafford, during United’s recent 2-0 victory over Tottenham. Ten Hag punished the former Real Madrid ace by jettisoning him from the United squad who secured a 1-1 away draw against Chelsea.
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And Neville believes the 37-year-old should accept that it will be an uphill task for him to reclaim his spot in the team, just as it was for other United legends before him. “It happens with all of us,” Neville added. “I’m not a great player, but it happened to me at Manchester United. It was very difficult for me.
“I was playing 25-30 matches a season, and it happened with Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, where they were not certain starters every single week. You either accept it that way or you accept it a different way which is ‘no, I’ve still got to play and I’ve got to leave, because I must play every single week’.
“It seems to me that Cristiano Ronaldo has adopted that second approach which is, ‘I’m not going to accept playing a bigger club less, I’m going to need to probably go and play somewhere else more’ and I think that’s what he has got to do.”
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