Former Manchester United captain, Gary Neville, has claimed no one wanted Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer.
Ronaldo spent much of the last transfer window making a push for the exits at Old Trafford, leading to him being linked with the likes of Bayern Munich and Chelsea, but the deadline passed with no deal done.
He has since been forced to settle for a supporting role in Erik ten Hag’s plans, with plenty of bench duty taken in, but Neville says that should not be considered an “insult” and that the 37-year-old can still play an important role for the Red Devils over the remainder of the 2022-23 campaign.
Neville has told The Mirror: “What I would hope is that, like with any other player coming towards the end of his career, he’ll accept that he won’t play every single game and he’ll stay and become a massive contributor like he was on Sunday night [in a 2-1 win over Everton] and United will have a good season. If Ronaldo stays I do think they have a far better chance of being a top-four team, even if he doesn’t play every week and he comes off the bench like he did against Everton.
“But I suspect his mentality, his psyche is such that he can’t not play. He feels it’s an insult and people I respect enormously in the game think he’s being disrespected by being on the bench, but I don’t see that at all. I think Erik ten Hag has come out of this really well. For me, I hope he can somehow think, ‘Where am I going to play where the fans love me as much, where there are still trophies on the table? We can achieve stuff.’ Where is he going to play in Europe? In the summer, no one wanted him in the transfer window. I think United have played it pretty well, this one.”
