Piers Morgan has defended Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo following his recent interview, claiming the 37-year-old was "only doing" what Gary Neville and fellow club legends had told him to do.
Ronaldo's accusations have dominated the headlines since his interview with Morgan was announced on Sunday night. Only a matter of hours had passed since Alejandro Garnacho's 93rd-minute winning goal against Fulham when the five-time Ballon d'Or winner started to dominate the headlines.
The former Real Madrid man has criticised numerous aspects of the club, including some of his former teammates. The Portugal international claimed that both Wayne Rooney and Neville were only using his name to become "more famous".
Ronaldo told Morgan during his interview on TalkTV: "It’s hard to listen [to] that kind of criticism and negative about people who play with you, for example, Gary Neville, as well. I think they take advantage of that because they are not stupid.
"I’m the number one followed guy in the world. It’s not by coincidence. To listen as ex-colleagues or teammates criticise you, when they only see one point of view.
"It’s easy. It’s easy to criticise, I don’t know if you have a job in television that they must criticise to be more famous. I really don’t understand it. It’s hard when you see people who was in the dressing room with you criticising that way."
Ronaldo's comments have sparked a wave of criticism. However, Morgan has now defended Ronaldo, claiming the United forward was simply doing what Neville and other United legends had asked him to do.
Two weeks before the September 1 transfer deadline, Neville tweeted: "Why does the greatest player of all time (in my opinion) have to wait two weeks to tell Manchester United fans the truth? Stand up now and speak. The club is in crisis and it needs leaders to lead. He’s the only one who can grab this situation by the scruff of the neck!"
The former United captain's tweet was in response to an Instagram post, in which Ronaldo was replying to a friend, where he said: "They know the truth when they interview in a couple of weeks. The media is telling lies. I have a notebook and in the last few months of the 100 news I made, only five were right. Imagine how it is. Stick with that tip."
Morgan has now called out Neville and other club legends who have criticised Ronaldo, over what he sees as a hypocritical viewpoint of the situation.
He quote-tweeted the aforementioned tweet from Neville, writing: "To all those attacking @Cristiano for speaking out and telling the truth… he’s only doing what United legends were calling for him to do..."
United and Ronaldo's situation was, of course, very different back in August when compared to now, as Neville's comments were made with a fortnight to go in the transfer window. Neville would also likely have failed to envisage Ronaldo would go on to make such wild accusations.
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