Gary Neville: I'd love Cristiano Ronaldo to stay in the Premier League - but his next club must start him
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville hopes Cristiano Ronaldo signs for a Premier League side - but says his next club will know they cannot bench him like Man Utd and Portugal did.
Ronaldo is a free agent after mutually agreeing to terminate his contract with United in November. That followed frustrations over his lack of game time for Erik ten Hag's side, but he was then subsequently dropped by Portugal boss Fernando Santos at the World Cup for his country's knock-out games in Qatar.
Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr have made the best offer so far to sign Ronaldo, while reports in the UK press on Thursday linked him with a move to Chelsea.
Neville says wherever Ronaldo ends up, he will need and expect to be playing regularly - but backed the forward to continue to score a high number of goals at the top level, despite now being 37 years old.
"I don't think there's any doubt Cristiano needs, wants and has to play," Neville told the Sky Sports World Cup Podcast.
"Otherwise, he's not going to be happy and he's not going to accept it. That means the club that take him will know that's the case.
"Unless there's a change of heart or approach, and the club and the player decide to have an honest conversation and say, 'Come and play for us, but you're going to be sat on the bench every other week, and you're going to compete for your place.' But we've seen at the last two teams he's played in, United and Portugal, that that's not gone down particularly well for either party.
"I think that pressure of having him on the bench, and how the media is so big, he's so big with the fans, he's one of the great players to have ever played the game, that seeing him on the bench is almost like a magnet for trouble for the club he's playing for, because the focus becomes the player who's not on the pitch, rather than the players who are playing.
"At that point, you need to make sure it doesn't become a distraction. That's where it got to at United and it's where it got to with Portugal at the end. So, I think it's got to be a very careful decision made by the club and by Cristiano.
"I hope he finds happiness and a club that will get him into the team and getting him scoring the goals that we know he can score - he'll score 20 goals in 30 matches wherever he plays, maybe 20 goals in 20 matches, knowing him.
"But how does he see the end of his career playing out? Does he see the end of his career playing out in lesser leagues, or does he see it playing out at one of the major leagues and continuing at that level?
"I hope it's the latter, and I hope he can find a club in the major leagues, even the Premier League, I'd love him to stay in the Premier League at a club that can have him up front and we can watch him every week because that's what we want to see, we want to see him playing."
https://www.skysports.com/football/...club-must-start-him-id-love-him-to-play-in-pl
