Gary Neville: Ronaldo made Fernandes feel inferior
Former Manchester United fullback Gary Neville claims that Cristiano Ronaldo's return to the club watered down the influence of Bruno Fernandes.
The midfielder was signed from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020 and hit the ground running. A solid return of goals and assists as well as an impeccable understanding of the positions of others ahead of him to be able to pick the best pass characterised his time at the club.
He started in the same blistering fashion in the just concluded season, but all that changed as soon as Ronaldo returned to the club and was installed as the new 'big man'.
Many have held this notion, with Liverpool legend John Barnes recently claiming that Ronaldo dampens the morale of the team with his famous tantrums when things fail to go his way.
Neville, who played with Ronaldo in his first stint at Old Trafford and was one of Ronaldo's biggest supporters while all the comments were flying around in the season, has finally chipped in following the conclusion of the season.
The Sky Sports pundit has now said that Fernandes looks like "half the player" he was in his first season at United and that Ronaldo has something to do with it.
Fernandes finished behind Ronaldo in the Premier League scorer's list for United with 10 goals, eight less than his 2020/21 return. His assist numbers were also halved, as he finished with six assists as opposed to the 12 from the 2020/21 season.
What has Neville said?
Neville, like Barnes, stated Fernandes is not the only player who has been affected by Ronaldo's return to Old Trafford last summer, citing Harry Maguire and Edinson Cavani - who had to give up the number 7 shirt - as other examples.
"I think at the start of the season, he created a problem straight away with Cavani," Neville said on Sky Sports' The Overlap. "[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 pulls on a red shirt.
"Bruno looks like half the player."
Neville places the blame on everyone at the club
The former England international did not absolve the team of the blame for a very poor season, however. "The rest of them, the young players, it looks like you’ve lost complete faith in them, let’s get rid of them," he added.
"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."
Ronaldo will remain at the club for one more season and is reportedly ready to work with new manager Erik ten Hag, who is also looking forward to working with the 37-year-old despite calls to axe him for the team for the sake of stability.
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