Cristiano Ronaldo was reduced to tears by Sir Alex Ferguson's famous 'hairdryer' treatment

Sir Alex’s comments left Ronaldo in tears

According to The Telegraph, Guillem Balague, Spanish football analyst and pundit has revealed in his new book that a young Cristiano Ronaldo had some tough starting months at Manchester United. The Portuguese forward was left in tears by Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous ‘hairdryer treatment’ once and also had a clash with Ruud Van Nistelrooy during the Dutchman’s last few days at United.

When Ronaldo first arrived at United, he used to hang around mostly with Spanish-speaking players like Quinton Fortune, Diego Forlán, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, goalkeeper Ricardo, fitness coach Valter di Salvo, Gerard Piqué and Gabriel Heinze.

Phil Neville talked about Ronaldo’s arrival at Old Trafford in the book and revealed that he had the confidence to look straight into the eyes of senior players, something which is not expected of the youngsters at the club. The versatile English player said, “He walked with his chest out. He was so confident. His eyes looking straight into yours.”

“Bloody hell, this lad,” thought Neville when he observed Ronaldo’s confidence after his arrival. “I likened him to Cantona. Cristiano arrived here saying, ‘This isn’t big, this is just where I belong.’”

Players at United made fun of Ronaldo

The Portugal captain has had a distinct fashion sense from his boyhood days. Though, during his initial time at United, his dressing sense, hairstyles, even teeth and skin were constantly made fun of. The banter reached to such an extent that he decided to have extensive orthodontic work done on his teeth and started the use of skin-care products as well to escape the comments on his looks.

Ronaldo’s clothes, teeth and skin were made fun of during his initial days at the club

Quinton Fortune, his ex-teammate recalled the time and stated, “He would just wear the tightest clothes. Armani or whatever, and the jeans were the tightest ever. It was probably the style in Portugal. We’d say to him, ‘Any room down there in that area? Ronnie, you need to look at yourself’.”

Gary Neville also had his say on Ronaldo’s styling sense in the book. “He overdressed for training,” revealed Neville. “But I look back and think: ‘Those were high standards.’ As a young boy, the youth coach Eric Harrison said that we represented Manchester United whatever we did, that we should always be smart, always wash our hair, always look clean shaven.

“I never really carried it through to that extent, but Cristiano always looked immaculate, always wanted to have very clean boots, perfect training kit, perfect hair, the best clothes even into training.”

“Looking back, I think it was a very unforgiving changing room; you had to be tough to get through it,” admitted Neville. “I honestly think it was the making of him.”

The ‘rondos’ of United training

Cristiano Ronaldo had to work his way up the pecking order in United training

Balague also highlighted the importance of ‘rondos’ in Manchester United training. It is an exercise which places some players inside a circle of their teammates and the ones in the circle try to pass the ball to each other across the players in the middle.

At United, there were a number of these rondos. Each were assigned a name based on their difficulty and the better players made up the toughest circle. Speaking about this, Ryan Giggs conveyed how they treated a player if he came with a big price tag. The United assistant coach said, “If you come with a price tag, as soon as you miscontrol it, it’s like, ‘How much did you cost?’ – we paid too much, we signed the wrong player”.

Eventually though Ronaldo was accepted as one of their own and was given passes that he could control as the group came to integrate him into the set-up.

The argument with Ruud van Nistelrooy

Ronaldo had a bust-up with Nistelrooy during the latter’s last days at the club

The Portuguese had a bust up with Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who was already a star in United's line-up when the former arrived. Reportedly, the Dutch striker was frustrated with the lack of crosses after David Beckham moved to Real Madrid. “I can’t play with this guy. He doesn’t even cross the ball,” Ruud Van Nistelrooy would often shout in training. “I can’t make my runs because he’s not going to cross the ball.”

Rio Ferdinand showed some light on the matter, “They had a couple of arguments,” revealed Ferdinand. “Ruud Van Nistelrooy kicked him one time and after that I kicked Ruud just to protect Ronnie a little bit and Ruud swung a punch at me and he missed.” After the incident, Nistelrooy left for Real Madrid.

Sir Alex’s fury at Ronaldo

Balague also revealed the extent to which Ronaldo was battered by Sir Alex. During his first match against a Portuguese opponent, the winger failed to show his authority. In the dressing room, Ferguson could not control himself and said, “Who do you think you are? Trying to play by yourself? You’ll never be a player if you do this!”

The youngster started crying after the incident and received a bit of a taunt from the team-mates as well. As Ferdinand revealed that they made fun of Ronaldo after he cried and called him a ‘cry baby’.

However, Ronaldo has stated that he believes Manchester United made him the player he is today and that Sir Alex is a father-figure for him. Even the other United players said he and the boss developed a relationship that was subject to envy from others.