Gary Neville says Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at Manchester United had a negative impact on Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani this campaign.
The Red devils endured their worst-ever Premier League season and their sixth-placed finish means there will be no Champions League football at Old Trafford next campaign.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, finished the season with 24 goals in all competitions, including 18 in the Premier League, but reports claimed that the 37-year-old is considering leaving United this summer after their poor season.
Neville, however, believes Ronaldo will remain at Old Trafford but feels his return ‘finished’ Cavani’s time at the club and inadvertently ‘upset’ the hierarchy in the dressing room with Maguire and Fernandes.
‘I think he’s staying,’ Neville said of Ronaldo on Sky Sports’ The Overlap. ‘I think at the start of the season, he created a problem straight away with Cavani.
‘[Cavani was] being pleaded to stay and lead the attack for the year, but when they signed Ronaldo, Cavani was shot then and finished. It upset the dynamic in the dressing room for Bruno.
‘I think Bruno looks up to him like a godfather in Portugal so it made him feel a bit inferior to what he was before. It made Maguire a little bit inferior as captain just naturally – nothing from Ronaldo’s doing this.
‘Just his presence itself on the pitch means everyone’s looking to Cristiano with Harry trying to establish himself as United captain.
‘I don’t know where the cliques are, I’m not close enough to it but you mention words like ‘rotten’ ‘broken’.
‘Harry Maguire has gone from someone who I think was growing on the pitch last year in Covid to someone who looks like he’s shot to pieces when he pull on a red shirt. ‘Bruno looks like half the player.
‘The rest of them, the young players, it looks like you’ve lost complete faith in them, let’s get rid of them. That’s when something has gone fundamentally wrong in the changing room, in the leadership, and I don’t think you can absolve anyone of blame. Everyone has to take blame for that.’
