Gary Neville mocks Cristiano Ronaldo’s explosive interview with well-timed tweet

Gary Neville poked fun at Cristiano Ronaldo’s interview with Piers Morgan by urging his Twitter followers to watch Salford City instead.

The first part of Ronaldo’s bombshell chat aired on TalkTV at 8pm on Wednesday night, with the Portuguese star handing both barrels to Manchester United for ‘betraying him’.

Ronaldo also took aim at Neville during the chat following the Sky Sports pundit’s criticism of his form for United this season.

The 37-year-old accused former teammate Neville of using him to boost his own profile – before declaring the pair were not friends.

It came after Ronaldo recently muted Neville while on the pitch for television duties as a result of the criticism.

Ronaldo told Morgan, “Listening as ex-colleagues or teammates criticize you, when they only see one point of view.

“It’s easy to criticize, I don’t know if you have a job in television that they have to criticize in order to become more famous. I really don’t understand.

“It’s hard when you see people who were in the dressing room with you criticizing that way.”

On Wednesday night, Neville posted a conveniently timed tweet at 7:34pm – 26 minutes before the start of the Ronaldo interview – saying, “Tune in for a ‘World Exclusive’ at 8pm tonight. Salford City vs Peterborough in the FACUP on ITV4 Channel 120.’

Neville may have regretted the post as the League Two club he co-owns with his fellow class of 92 graduates were beaten 3-0 by their League One opponents, who reached the second round.

Ronaldo had gone on to express his frustration at criticism from Neville and his former United striker partner Wayne Rooney.

‘Me too (I’m surprised at this). Piers, I don’t understand. You have to ask him the questions [Rooney],’ he said. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know why he criticized me so much.

“Probably (it’s jealous). Probably – because he ended his career in his thirties. I still play at a high level; I’m not going to say I look better than him, which is true.

“It’s hard to listen to that kind of criticism and negativity from people who play with you, including Gary Neville.

“People can have their own opinions, but they don’t know what’s going on on Carrington’s training ground – or even my life.

“They shouldn’t listen to one point of view — they should listen to my point of view too, because it’s easy to criticize [when] you don’t know the whole story.

They’re not my friends, they’re colleagues. We play together, they don’t come, we never eat together.’

Neville had responded to these comments, which preceded the airing of the main interview, by tweeting, “Anyone for dinner?”

Ronaldo made his feelings about Neville clear when he slammed the Sky Sports pundit ahead of United’s Premier League clash with West Ham last month.

Ronaldo decided to ignore Neville after his former team-mate criticized him for charging through the tunnel during United’s win over Tottenham Hotspur.

Neville said United would be ‘better without’ Ronaldo and the Premier League giants should ‘end their relationship with him’.

The 37-year-old went to see his former teammate Louis Saha – who worked on the panel for Sky Sports – ahead of United’s game with West Ham.

Ronaldo hugged Saha before saying goodbye to Jamie Redknapp. However, he passed Marcel without saying a word.

After being knocked out by the Portugal international, Neville said: “We’re not on the Christmas card list, are we?”