Ex-Man Utd star aims brutal dig at old club after Cristiano Ronaldo outburst

Former Manchester United starlet Andreas Pereira has revealed the Red Devils' training ground facilities pale in comparison to those he works at now with Palmeiras. The Brazilian midfielder is in his first weeks with the club, having made the move from Fulham in the summer.

Pereira joined United's youth team at 16 and played 75 times for the first-team before leaving to join the Cottagers in 2022. And as a result, the 29-year-old never had the opportunity to work with the club's recently-opened new £50million training centre at Carrington.

The ex-United youngster now plies his trade at Palmeiras' Football Academy, a 48,000 square-metre centre built to provide state-of-the-art facilities and supported by the Sao Paulo city government. In contrast to what he experienced in Manchester, the facilities are 'elite'.

United will hope their new training ground can help spark better results under Ruben Amorim and that it can now avoid any embarrassing criticism. Their wait to improve facilities means they've taken the brunt of a dig on this occasion.

"Compared to what's out there, it's the elite of football," Pereira, 29, said of Palmeiras' training centre in an interview with ESPN Brasil.

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"Few clubs have the structure Palmeiras has. I've worked for several big clubs in Europe, and I can say that Palmeiras has the best structure I've ever worked in. Better than Manchester United when I was there."

United's training base was scrutinised and criticised before its recent transformation. Cristiano Ronaldo's explosive interview with Piers Morgan highlighted the status of Carrington.

Football's first billionaire revealed that little had changed in the North West between his two spells at the club. Ronaldo's first left United in 2009 before returning in 2021.

"Nothing changed, surprisingly," the superstar said after his controversial United exit in 2022. "Not only the pool, the jacuzzi, even the gym. Even the kitchen, the chefs, whom I appreciate – lovely people. They stopped in time. It surprised me a lot.

"I thought I would see other things, technologies and infrastructure. Unfortunately, we see a lot of what I used to see at 21, 22 and 23 years old. It really surprised me. Since Ferguson left, I haven't seen an evolution at the club.

"Progress is zero. You have to tear it down and rebuild it."

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