If You Didn't Drink, You Didn't Play for Liverpool In The Nineties - Neil 'Razor' Ruddock

Former Liverpool, West Ham and England hard-man Neil 'Razor' Ruddock (yes, he played once for the national side) admits he would like to bring Cristiano Ronaldo down a peg or two - but he'd have to catch him first.

Ruddock, 44, who recently finished fifth in Celebrity Big Brother and starred in the 2004 version of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, delivered his no-nonsense verdict on Real Madrid superstar Ronaldo and the Spanish side's manager Jose Mourinho ahead of tomorrow's Champions League clash at Manchester United.

Ruddock, in an exclusive interview with Loaded magazine, revealed that he used to wind up with United great Eric Cantona by continually turning down the Frenchman's collar during matches and that he'd like to upset Ronaldo with similar tricks.

He said: 'I only wound Eric up because it was fun. He was a good footballer and if I played fairly against him he’d destroy me. 'I’d rather he want to hurt me after winding him up than have him run me around the field for 90 minutes. 

'I didn’t mean to hit Andy Cole hard (Ruddock infamously broke both Cole's legs in a challenge in 1996) either, just a tap – it wasn’t big or clever. I’d do the same with Ronaldo though.

'He’s grating, isn’t he? I’m not sure how long it’d take to injure him though, you’d have to catch him first!'

He is full of praise for the Special One, though, ahead of tomorrow's last-16 Champions League second leg at Old Trafford. 

'Jose’s one person we need back,' he added. 'He was a great advert for the English game. He was the only man to give Ferguson a challenge, and the way he used to wind Wenger up every season was brilliant.'

Ruddock, pictured here with a couple of Loaded glamour girls, is engaged to another glamour model Leah Newman, with whom he has been in a relationship for eight years.

Eager to show off his retired sportsman's physique, gregarious Razor has clearly enjoyed his life after football.

'Footballers nowadays are getting tons a week but couldn’t enjoy their money like we did,' he recalls. 

'They can’t go to pubs and clubs and let their hair down like we did. We had a drinking culture, especially at Liverpool, if you didn’t drink you didn’t play for the club.
 

'Every Tuesday we had to go out and get smashed, it was what we called team bonding – even the gaffer didn’t mind.

'When I was out I used to drink half pints, not to pace myself but so when people looked at you they’d think you were clever, being sensible by drinking less.

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