Gary Neville has revealed he once copped a spray from Cristiano Ronaldo when he was manager of Valencia.

Neville enjoyed only a few highlights during his short stint at the Mestalla, one of which was a draw with Real Madrid.

And the Englishman says Ronaldo wasn't happy with the state of the Mestalla, which the Juventus star let him know about.

Asked if he felt proud to have managed against Real Madrid despite his time at Valencia being difficult, Neville told Sky Sports: "No. I never think of it, I never think of anything I've done and feel proud about it.

"Actually what I remember about that game is that, obviously we were struggling in the league, and Real Madrid were absolutely outstanding. They had Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and all the other sort of great players.

"And we left the grass really long on the pitch, so that the ball wouldn't travel very quick, and we didn't water it either.

"And I remember Cristiano coming over to me – honestly this is a true story – he came over to me before the game and he said, 'Gaz! Gaz! A disgrace! It's a disgrace! Cut the pitch! Cut the pitch!'

"And I said to him, "You've no chance of me cutting the pitch!" [laughing] Honestly it was like a farmer's field. Honestly it was, we left it that long. There was no way he was dribbling that night!

"But do you know something, at that point I thought if that's in the players' heads, and it's in Cristiano's head, before the game this was.

"I always knew when we were distracted before a game at United maybe the odd time. I remember once at Bradford the dressing rooms weren't big enough and it was boiling hot so we all went outside into the corridor before the game, about an hour before, and just sat there.

"And what we were telling Bradford was that the changing room wasn't good enough, so it probably lifted them a little bit. And I suppose that message from Cristiano that night gave me a little bit of hope."