Man United legend says the club had a player who was better than Ronaldo

Ex-Manchester United player, Jonathan Paul Spector has recently ignored Cristiano Ronaldo after been questioned to outline the best player he has ever played with during his days at the United 2003.

Jonathan Spector who currently plays as a defender for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian was signed from Chicago fire and played for united from 2003-2006 during Ronaldo’s move from Sporting Lisbon the same year that Jonathan was signed.

The ex-United States international only made eight appearances under Ferguson before joining West Ham permanently in 2006 – and he has now chosen Paul Scholes as his most talented team-mate.

“I have also been incredibly fortunate to play with some of the best players who have ever played the game — and to learn from them,” Spector told the Daily Record.

“It would be easy to say the best was Cristiano Ronaldo but, to be honest, I’d have to say Paul Scholes.

“He was always a step ahead of me but it felt like he was a step ahead of everyone else on the pitch.

“He was incredibly humble too. But that’s something I always found at Manchester United.”

Ronaldo’s former Manchester United team-mate had long spells with both the Hammers and Birmingham before returning to the US with Orlando City prior to joining Hibs, and he spoke fondly of his period playing in the Premier League.

He added: “On my first day I came out of the reserve changing room and I ran into Ruud van Nistelrooy.

“He came up to me to introduce himself — I was like, ‘I know exactly who you are! I should be introducing myself to you!’

“But all the guys at United were like that.

“They were really down to earth, nice individuals and that’s one of the reasons that club was so successful.”

Spector also revealed one of his early encounters with Sir Alex Ferguson, and how the Scotsman wasn’t impressed with his debut for the reserve side.

“I played in a reserve game at Middlesbrough, and it’s fair to say I had a poor game,” Spector said.

“I was back in with the first team that weekend but I didn’t even make the bench and the manager pulled me aside after his team-talk.

“He said ‘Spector — you were absolutely useless the other night’.

“That was it. There was no hairdryer. I was like, ‘Yeah, I know. It won’t happen again boss’.”

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