![Gary Neville believes Cristiano Ronaldo will stay at Manchester United for another season](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_101851421.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
Gary Neville believes Cristiano Ronaldo will stay at Manchester United for another season (EPA)
Gary Neville believes Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at Manchester United had a negative impact on Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes and Edinson Cavani this season.
United endured their worst-ever Premier League season and their sixth-placed finish means there will be no Champions League football at Old Trafford next term.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, finished the campaign with 24 goals in all competitions, including 18 in the Premier League, but reports have claimed that the 37-year-old is considering leaving United this summer following their woeful season.
Neville, however, believes Ronaldo will remain at United but feels his return ‘finished’ Cavani’s time at Old Trafford 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.
Gary Neville says Bruno Fernandes’ stature inside United’s dressing room was reduced by Cristiano Ronaldo’s return (Reuters)
‘[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.
Harry Maguire has struggled to perform as Manchester United captain following Cristiano Ronaldo’s return (Getty)
‘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.
Gary Neville says Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival ‘finished’ Edinson Cavani’s career at Manchester United (Getty)
More: Football
Liverpool vs Real Madrid tactics preview: How Champions League final can be won and lost
Jamie Carragher tells Erik ten Hag to replace Man Utd star: ‘He’s Arsenal or Tottenham’
‘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.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Source:: Metro