Fergie: Nani Has Improved Since Ronaldo Left

Nani opened the scoring in the Community Shield match against Chelsea last weekend and put in an all-round good performance. Sir Alex Ferguson reckoned that whoever chose Ricardo Carvalho as man of the match over Nani “obviously weren’t watching the game”.

The young Portuguese winger is in need of a good season and despite best bud Cristiano Ronaldo leaving, he seems as committed as ever.

“My future is at Manchester United, of course. It is a privilege to be at a club like this. I won one more title last season and I am very happy to have won it for these two consecutive years. I was born to play football and I feel fine, although I did not play much. I will not leave Manchester United,” Nani said in June. A couple of weeks later Nani’s best mate was sold to Real Madrid, something which could have had a negative impact on the player. However Nani seemed more than happy to move on. “Cristiano’s departure is not impossible to fix,” he said. “He will be missed but United have other players who can replace him.”

The manager reckons that Nani has matured since Ronaldo has left.

“He seems more settled now,” Ferguson said. “I don’t think he was in Cristiano’s shadow; he was a good friend and looked up to him. But once he knew Cristiano was leaving, he probably thought to himself, ‘This is my chance now’, and the boy has been doing very well since then.”