To many people, the indelible highlight from the weekend was undeniably the pantomime of a vengeful Cristiano Ronaldo coldly snubbing Gary Neville, an act that former legend turned pundit Rio Ferdinand believes was not a last minute reaction from Ronaldo but one that is unquestionably \u201c100% pre-meditated\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ferdinand is dead certain Ronaldo had already determined beforehand to publicly ignore his former team-mate Neville and had gotten it all pre-planned ahead of time.<\/p>\n
In keeping with the tradition he has set this season, Ronaldo skipped over to the side of the pitch to say hello to the Sky Sports pundits but was most obvious in deliberately snubbing a sheepish-looking Neville while he cheerfully greeted Louis Saha and former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp.<\/p>\n
Neville is now the latest part of an illustrious club that includes the likes of Jamie Carragher, who was also blanked by the former Real Madrid ace at the side of the pitch some months back after the former Liverpool legend had made some remarks that did not find favor with Ronaldo. And Ferdinand now believes the 37-year-old\u2019s actions were all pre-meditated, as a response to Neville\u2019s criticism in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cGary Neville got blanked,\u201d Ferdinand shouted on the Vibe with Five<\/em> podcast. \u201cNeville looked nervous. I\u2019ve seen that face before and he looked nervous. He was like \u2018Oh God, is he going to talk to me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Ferdinand had finished laughing, he added, \u201cThere are many ways to look at this, but he\u2019s blanked him and he\u2019s premeditated it 100%. [He\u2019s thought] \u2018when I go out there and if my man\u2019s out there, he ain\u2019t getting a bar of love from me\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just put it on him out there like that and Neville\u2019s standing there going \u2018oh god, please say hello, please, please\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Neville has previously said publicly he feels United are a better team without Ronaldo and that the two parties should \u2018end their relationship\u2019.<\/p>\n Ronaldo made his first Premier League start since being jettisoned from the matchday squad by Erik ten Hag, as punishment for leaving the pitch and the stadium early, during United\u2019s 2-0 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n But while Ferdinand feels players should accept the criticism from pundits such as Neville and himself, he also admitted he probably would have snubbed anybody who threw criticism at him.<\/p>\n \u201cConstructive criticism is fine,\u201d Ferdinand added, when detailing exactly where the line is for players, when criticism is concerned. “If someone says \u2018I ain\u2019t playing well\u2019, or someone says they should sell me or anything like that, I would use that as fuel. I would hold that and that would be some negative energy there for me.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I saw that reporter out there, I would pie [blank] him – I would pie him. But me being in the position I am in now, I expect players to accept that. They should accept that as part of it, because we\u2019re here, this is our job, we are here to critique your performance.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"