Gary Neville reveals how he broke golden rule after Cristiano Ronaldo's Man United exit

Gary Neville admitted he broke a 'golden rule' when he blasted Cristiano Ronaldo for the way he departed Manchester United.

Neville and Ronaldo both won it all when they played alongside each other as part of Sir Alex Ferguson's legendary United side between 2003 and 2009. However, when Ronaldo forced his way out of Old Trafford in his second stint by attacking the club and manager Erik ten Hag in an interview with Piers Morgan, Neville was one of the loudest voices against the Portuguese ace.

The ex-right-back remains today as one of the most influential and controversial voices in Premier League football punditry. After the interview went to air, he admitted he felt a responsibility to break the so-called golden rule of never criticising a former team-mate.

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Neville said on the ‘It’s Called Soccer’ podcast: “Where I was critical of a player that I used to play with and the one time where I have probably broken that sort of (golden rule) was the Cristiano Ronaldo exit at United.

“It was when he did the interview with Piers Morgan. It’s nothing to do with doing an interview with Piers Morgan. My concern that night was his team-mates had just won that day, Garnacho had scored at Fulham and then the interview came out a few hours later. I just thought the timing of that was really disappointing.

“I thought it was the wrong time to do the interview and probably the wrong way to exit Manchester United. I felt strongly about that, because of his leadership qualities, his stature in the game and the fact that I felt he could be a leader at