GARY Neville has always had his family close by him at United. His parents, grandparents and sister are all Old Trafford regulars. His father hardly ever missed a European away tie and has been a keen watcher of the Reds eve of match training sessions on foreign soil.
The Reds captain also had his younger brother Phil in the same United dressing room for much of his 12-year career.
Born and bred in Bury, Neville's professional life has been spent on his own doorstep.
So the 31-year-old has more respect than most for Cristiano Ronaldo's three years in England.
Neville was 19 when he made his Old Trafford breakthrough as a regular and he was surrounded by mates who'd been through the Old Trafford ranks with him.
Ronaldo was a year younger at 18 when he was brought over to Manchester from Sporting Lisbon for é12.5m in 2003.
The Madeiran-born winger left the family home for a new life in colder climes as a raw, inexperienced and homesick teenager and he didn't speak the language.
Red card
He also suffered the trauma last season of losing his father.
Then in the World Cup he became public enemy number one for the Wayne Rooney red card incident and was vilified in print and verbally abused noisily on his travels around the country.
Neville has seen it all before with his best mate David Beckham after France `98. The then United star was the target for abuse from opposition fans but he won them round to become England captain.
Beckham, however, did at least have his family close by. But Ronaldo's battle to overcome the snipers has impressed Neville arguably even more than Beckham's villain to hero story.
"Cristiano will always fight back. His performances this season have been fantastic," says Gary.
"The thing about Ronaldo is that he is at the right club. He is with the right people. English people are very forgiving. Even the fans who are giving him stick at away grounds would say they want to come and see him play. He is just incredible to watch.
"United fans will always rally round their own and Cristiano Ronaldo is one of our own. He is young. He has had difficulties because when you think about it to come over here at the age of 18 and leave home and your family is extremely difficult.
"It is not something I would have liked to experience. But he has come through that. If Ronaldo does not go on to become the player he should then there is something wrong. He is an incredible talent."
Star performer
Against Benfica in Lisbon on Tuesday night he was the Reds' star performer.
Last December he had left the Estadio Da Luz in torment and in trouble.
Jeered constantly by the Portuguese fans largely because he had played for Benfica's bitter city rivals Sporting he was out of sorts and gave them a one-fingered gesture when he was substituted and earned a UEFA ban.
But on Tuesday he ignored the catcalls and was United's driving force in the 1-0 victory.
Neville is in awe of the 21-year-old's repertoire, saying: "At times he is unpredictable. Some of his play is incredible. I would hate to play against him.
"I am sure teams who play against him at the moment are suffering. His speed and skill are incredible. His running was a constant threat and an outlet for other players on Tuesday
"Some of Cristiano's play means you have to smile at him. Sometimes he will go and run it into somebody and give it away and other times he will go past players.
"But to play against him must be an absolute nightmare because the amount of running he makes defenders do. He creates space.
"He is learning all the time. We say do the right things for the first hour or 70 minutes and those last minutes you will come into the game and get the space and you can to win us the match."
That game plan worked to the letter against Benfica as United finally won a Champions League away match - apart from qualifying ties - for the first time since November 2003.
It might not always have been pretty in Lisbon but Neville warns that will be the blueprint for the Reds to challenge again in Europe.
"I said before the game to the lads that maybe we had to go back to playing ugly.
Result
"In the last 18 months to two years we have got control at the back in the first ten minutes and almost start from there.
"But sometimes you have to just kick it out from your goalkeeper.
"Maybe we have to go back to our roots ten years ago when we were just starting to learn in Europe and do it the ugly way and the way you can get a result.
"We had to respect the fact we were away from home in Europe. We have come to learn now that we are not going to go out there and play fantastic football.
"There are two teams out there and these teams are very difficult to play against, especially on their home patch.
"We are renowned for playing attractive football and not maybe for grinding out results like we did against Benfica and that was the most pleasing thing.
"We were very aware of what happened last season. We didn't respect the opponents we had in our group.
"I think we thought we'd go away to place like Villarreal, Lille and Benfica and win the matches but you have to respect them. I think you saw this time we did respect Benfica.
"We showed in Lisbon that we have learnt from last season. You can't just go into people's own backyards in Europe and expect to play fantastic football and them not leave their mark on you.
"We are not going to have it all our own way in European matches away from home. That just isn't going to happen. The quicker we realise that the better. Hopefully on Tuesday you saw the start of that realisation," said the England right-back.
Is Ronaldo the finished product, or is there still room for improvement? Have your say.
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Cristiano is getting better :
He seems to be playing with
more Confidence and Determination : The problem:
he makes Great Subtle
Passes and Plays that are so Fast that his team mates seem to be a nano second behind him .... However As he gets better so do Rooney , Saha , Smudge ,
Rio and the rest ....
It's Sublime Soccer , Just Sublime !!
If any commentator says that Ronaldo over elaborates one more time i'm going to scream!! Its obvious when you watch united, players give him the ball and then run away from him becuase they expect him to go on a mazy run everytime! as far as i'm concerned beating players is the hardest skill in football and for the commentators on BBC or Sky to whinge about that is incredible. Do they want 11 Claude Makeleles?? Ronaldo is the most exciting player to watch and when he matures he will begin to take the right option more often and grow into a supremely amazing footballer. I just hope that happens at united although i fear he will eventually move to Spain
In 3 years time Ronaldo will be awesome. He already is one of our two most exciting players and both of them (Rooney) are the envy of all clubs, yes including moneybags Chelsea.
You cannot become something that you already are (i.e., awesome). Please never leave us, Cristiano!
Ronaldo is absolutely awesome.
He is the most amazing player.
It is a shame that the press tried to destroy him with this dirty campaign after the world cup.
Only the bitterest Currant bun reading goon can see to help Ronaldo improve it would be great if (Saha and Rooney aside) the rest of current line up had the pace to break when he has the ball counter-attacking maybe he'd have someone to pass the ball to, instead of running into the 2-3 players that have nothing other than him to worry about. Fletcher, Trot, trot O'Shea, Carrick, are not exactly marauding midfieders blessed with an abundance of pace. But I suppose that would mean identifying the problem in midfield and rectifying it, instead of continuing with square pegs in round holes.
I watched the game again last night and he really is amazing. If Rooney was on form right now, we would be shredding defences.
Don't understand Rooney's role against BENFICA but playing Roo in a defensive role is going to let the opposition come at us all night.
He needs a goal as his confidence level is at an all time low.
Ronaldo and Louis are carrying the can for us right now. Carrick should be on his own with Scholes in CM and we need to get either Evra or Ole on the wings along with Ronny. Play Roo as an out and out striker with Louis just behind him. Don't touch the back four.
Amazing that at the start of last season certain sections of the United support would call you an apologist for mentioning that Ronaldos poor form might have been anything to do with his Fathers death false allegations and living in a foreign country. I wondor whether the same people are now going to recognise Ronaldos ability or are they going to make excuses for other players current poor form?
I think Ronaldo's fantastic, so exciting. But sometimes it can be frustrating because he gets himself into so many good positions but his final ball is disappointing. Still, he's improving fast in this area and the difference between this season and last is already noticeable. Think the world cup experience improved him a lot.
Possibly the least intimidating sight in world football (aside from Rio going up for a corner), is young Ronaldo stepping up for a free kick. Can we please stop this charade and let someone else have a go?
Ronaldo is a very good, exciting player without a doubt. To become the great player he can be, he needs to work on his 'when to pass' skills.
he is no way the finished product he is only 21 for gods sake! but the best thing is, he can only get better and better and as he is quite a big built lad he is strong as well as skillfull. he is now scoring more goals and distributing the ball better and i can see him becoming the best player in the world within the next 2-3 years.
Ronaldo has been the only shining light in this otherwise confusing start the season.
lets start with ....Fulham ok we leathered them but they have had a poor start so really didnt beat much...Rooney looked ok that day,so why has he looked so out of soughts since v starnge ,esp the other night when i thought he was looking to come off.
charlton ,watford ,spurs all have had v poor starts too,and to be fair we really struggled against tottenham.
well beat by Arsenal and didnt make to many clear cut chances against a v poor reading team.add dodgy defending against celtic and probably the worst first half performance for a long time against benfica leaves me worried.
hopefully the excellent second half performance on tues will be a springboard to better form ,the reults have been ok but the form has been slack.
a thumping good performance and result is what is nede against Newcastle,not just the win.With the scoucers on the horizon we need to become a much more solid outfit.
For many years people have been talking about "the new Georgie Best". I think he has finally arrived!
Never mind all that - heartiest congratulations to GAZ NEV for the sturdy top lip growth during the pre-season. Luv the clint east wood syle "walk the walk" out of the tunnel each game as wll GAZ. All we need now is for GAZ to learn the national anthem so he can singalong with the rest of the England team. This man's my hero. I luv him
Robbo, regarding Ronaldo's free-kicks. First, his shot is extremely powerful; even if he doesn't score that often, his shots create huge problems for the other team's keeper/defense (e.g., through deflections/rebounds). Second, no player - barring Juninho - scores more than a couple of set-peice goals a season, not even Ronaldinho. And third, what alternative do we have? Giggs has scored - correct me if I'm wrong - four or five free-kick goals in 15 years. Should DF or JOS get the chance?
He got to learn to mix his play up, when he makes the simple pass this tends to be more productive for the team than when he keeps running with the ball because then he tends to either run into a dead-end or gives the ball away with a lot of his team-mates out of position. Also the free-kicks should be shared around a lot more, with Gabby and Rooney getting a chance..as well as Ronaldo, then other teams won`t know what to expect..the element of surprise always works.
Ronaldo is quite simply everything a United player should be
Quick
Skillful
Talented
Interesting
Arrogant
United and Wingers are like pea's in a pod. Beautiful.
Reds4Ever I think you might be right. In my lifetime (under 30) I don't think I've seen a player so young be so good and still with so much to learn. What will he be like in two or three more years? I can't wait to find out.
Robbo Who ?? I would have Giggs taking all free kicks from the right hand side and Ronaldo taking the rest as he has caused a lot of problems with them for keepers even if his style is unorthadox.
Superb player clearly. If we can get him playing like he does for his country ie more disciplined we'll reap more benefit. But that's not his fault he feels obliged to take on more responsibility due to weak team mates. He's going to get better & I hope that will be with a new manager & coach next season.
I'm still not convinced he is going through a pretty good spell right now but he always has had good spells, for the amount of ball he has the amount of attacking he should score 20 goals plus and be in double figures for assists. I would put good money that Rooney will score more and have more assists at the end of the season. He is often too greedy and his final pass or shot is poor.
Vastly over-rated when he adds the ability to cross I will take some notice. He can beat players for fun but rarely does he do anything with it. And he doesn't work back when he did on Tue he gave away a dangerous free kick. I would prefer Giggs and Park on the wings.
Lee, I'd say Giggs, Rooney, Heinze, Scholes, anyone but Ronaldo. I watch him slice them over the bar in the warm-up and do the same during the game. I'm just not sold on this patented mis-hit wobbly technique he's developed in training. He's been a shining light amid the gloom this season but shooting is not one of his strong points.
Great game from Ronaldo, seemed our only inspiration in Lisbon.
Also - What a great stadium, knocks Ot and most other British stadium into a perspective, great seats, hundreds of toilets, good views, ample room. We should have rebuilt OT in the mid 90's. No matter waht we stick on top its still old OT.