Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has made the intriguing claim that he feels Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to blank Gary Neville will have been pre-meditated.
The ex-Red Devil discussed the rather amusing situation that unfolded on Sky Sports at the weekend, with Ronaldo very clearly embracing both Louis Saha and Jamie Redknapp before completely snubbing Neville, who was also on punditry duty that day.
Neville seemed to laugh it off at the time, but Ferdinand teased his old team-mate for looking nervous about it, and suggested that is what Ronaldo was setting out to do.
Still, speaking on his Vibe with Five show, Ferdinand also suggested that Ronaldo could perhaps have dealt with it differently, as it’s the job of pundits like Neville to give their honest opinions.
Speaking on YouTube, the former England international said: “Neville looked nervous. I’ve seen that face before and he looked nervous. He was like ‘oh god is he going to talk to me?’
“There are many ways to look at this, but he’s blanked him and he’s premeditated it 100%. [He’s thought] ‘when I go out there and if my man’s out there, he ain’t getting a bar of love from me’.
“He just put it on him out there like that and Neville’s standing there going ‘oh god, please say hello, please, please’.”
Ronaldo, Neville and Ferdinand all used to be part of some of the great Sir Alex Ferguson sides at Old Trafford, and it’s intriguing to see that there now seem to be some issues brewing there.
It seems clear Ronaldo is no longer happy with Neville for criticising him, but it remains to be seen if the Portuguese is still on good terms with Ferdinand, while one imagines Neville might not take too kindly to Ferdinand’s response to the saga.