Teen duo must become men - Neville Wednesday September 07, 2005
Dynamic Duo
Gary Neville believes it is now time for Manchester United team-mates Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo to "become men" and show their superstar qualities week in and week out.
Rooney is now in his fourth Premiership season and Ronaldo his third, with both potentially set to be first-team regulars at Old Trafford for more than a decade to come.
Both players have suffered poor patches of form at various stages in their first few Premiership campaigns, but Neville has now called on them to demonstrate their match-winning capabilities every time they go out on the pitch.
"They are sensational players and now is the time that you have to become a man," he said.
"They have had the two (or three) years' experience and you have got to be more polished. Those two have got to win us matches, that is what they are there to do.
"That is why they are in the team. They can do anything they want on a football pitch.
"Between them - not to put pressure on them - they should be scoring and setting up goals left, right and centre.
You can't handle those players in training, they're so difficult to mark, so quick and strong and two years down the line they look fitter and better."
One player Neville hopes to see back in the United forward line is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian had looked set to be ready for first-team action in October after being out since May 2004 with an horrific knee injury. However, a new tear has set him back and his return to action has been indefinitely postponed.
Neville is still hopeful Solskjaer, in the last year of his current contract with the Red Devils, will play for the club again and wants to be on the pitch to witness it.
The England full-back told MUTV: "I hope we will have him back soon. I sit next to him in the changing room and he is genuinely one of the nicest lads you'll ever meet.
"For 12 to 14 months he has slogged in that gym like you wouldn't believe from nine in the morning till three.
"That might not seem like long hours but to be in a gym every day for 12 months, when you're a footballer, he's just giving it his all.
"If anyone can come back from the injury he's had it will be him because he has been so professional and has done everything perfectly.
"I still think we will see him out there again in a United shirt and I hope I'm on the pitch that night because he will get probably the most incredible reception any player has ever had in the history of Old Trafford.
"He scored the winning goal in the European Cup final, he will always be one of the legends of Manchester United. There are spine-tingling moments that this place can give you, and I'm pretty confident he will have that moment (of coming back). I can see him scoring a goal for United again."
