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Man Utd icon Gary Neville questions Cristiano Ronaldo behaviour after brutal public snub
Cristiano Ronaldo blanked Gary Neville before Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Ham.
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Manchester United icon Gary Neville has responded to Cristiano Ronaldo after the striker snubbed the Sky Sports pundit before the Red Devils' 1-0 win over West Ham on Sunday. Neville is a former team-mate of Ronaldo, but joined Jamie Carragher in being blanked by the Portuguese striker after being a vocal critic of the 37-year-old.
Before Erik ten Hag's side defeated the Hammers thanks to Marcus Rashford's first-half header, Ronaldo before his warm-up went across to the Sky punditry team that were on the touchline as he gave former United striker Louis Saha a hug, before greeting ex-Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp and then ignored Neville.
Neville joked after the incident that he is no longer on good terms with Ronaldo. "We're off the Christmas card list, aren't we?" Neville said. Carragher enjoyed the incident despite not being on punditry duties, he changed his Twitter profile picture to a photo of Neville being avoided by Ronaldo and posted several tweets about the situation.
Carragher wrote: "Welcome to the, blanked by Ronaldo club @GNev2," as he was blanked a few weeks prior to Neville for suggesting that Ronaldo should leave Old Trafford and that the team performs better when he is out of the starting lineup.
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Neville responded on Monday as Micah Richards posted a video of him with Roy Keane. After the former Manchester City man asked Neville how it felt to be snubbed by Ronaldo, the ex-United full-back did question the Portugal captain's behaviour.
“It just tells you something though, it means he’s watched and… yeah," Neville said. "I think if I had 570million followers on Instagram I wouldn’t be a***d about Gary Neville. Yeah I know [they were team-mates] but he doesn’t behave like someone who has played with me, or him [Keane] for that matter.”
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Before the win over West Ham, Neville praised Ten Hag for how he handled dealing with Ronaldo after leaving him out of the squad to face Chelsea. "He’s come back in so they’ve sorted the differences," Neville said. "I think Erik ten Hag every time there’s been a situation with Ronaldo, he’s left out an olive branch and let him back in. He’s deescalated the situation, he can’t do anything about it until January. Erik ten Hag is doing a very good job."
Ronaldo was handed just his third Premier League start of the season against West Ham, and Ten Hag was pleased with his performance. "I think he did quite well, what we expect, to lead the pressing," Ten Hag told Sky Sports.
"First-half linked up, I said at half-time come not too quick, lets do the work by the midfield and the defence then in the latest moment drop eventually out to attract players or get the freedom to score, be creative or find the final pass. Once the ball go wide, he will arrive in the box."