Former Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo criticised the club’s training ground during his bombshell interview with Piers Morgan.
Ronaldo did not hold back with his criticism of Manchester United during his controversial interview in November of last year. He also slammed his then-manager Erik ten Hag, the club’s owners and a number of his former teammates.
The 38-year-old claimed the infrastructure at the club’s Carrington training complex hadn’t changed since his first stint at the club.
However, Ronaldo was not pleased with the lack of progress and investment he saw at the training ground when he made his return to Old Trafford in August 2021.
During his interview with Morgan, Ronaldo said: “Nothing changed, surprisingly. Not only the pool, the jacuzzi, even the gym. Even the kitchen, the chefs, whom I appreciate – lovely people. They stopped in time. It surprised me a lot.
“I thought I would see other things, technologies, and infrastructure. Unfortunately, we see a lot of what I used to see at 21, 22, and 23 years old. It really surprised me.
“Since Ferguson left, I haven’t seen an evolution at the club. Progress is zero. You have to tear it down and rebuild it. If they start with me, it’s not a problem.”
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According to reports, the Red Devils were adamant that they had made changes to the training ground in recent years – claiming the swimming pool area, cafeteria and main gym had all undergone a makeover. It was also said that they were looking to add more offices, a bigger gym area and a bigger car park.
But, there was a general consensus that Ronaldo was right with his comments about Carrington – and former United midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin has since reiterated the claims made by the Portuguese forward.
The Frenchman, who plays for Western Sydney, on loan from Nice, signed for United from Southampton in 2015. He played just 47 games for the club before leaving for Everton less than two years after joining.
Despite being at Old Trafford for less time than Ronaldo, Schneiderlin still had the same view on the training ground.
“It was a weird feeling at Manchester United,” Schneiderlin told the Daily Mail. “For me, it is the biggest club in the world, no doubt, but I joined at the wrong time.
“The training ground needed to be more modern and other things needed to change. You could feel the atmosphere at the club wasn’t great. I was very surprised, I was thinking, sometimes, ‘Come on, we are all playing for Manchester United, we should smile every day, of course there is high pressure but you need to be strong to play’
“As a player, you always blame yourself and I know what went wrong with me. If you play for Manchester United, you have quality, I was full of dreams going there and didn’t expect things to go that way.”
Ronaldo was playing at Real Madrid while Schneiderlin was at Old Trafford, but the latter felt the same about the quality at Carrington.
While the 38-year-old who has scored nine goals in 10 games for Al-Nassr – voiced his concerns in arguably the wrong way, the comments from Schneiderlin prove that his opinion is shared by other former United players.
