Neville: Ronaldo, Rooney & Tevez were better front 3 than Mane, Salah & Firmino

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has claimed that Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez is the greatest front three the Premier League has ever seen.

Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez played alongside each other at United between 2007 and 2009 and helped the club claim back-to-back Premier League titles during those seasons as well as the Champions League in 2008.

Liverpool's deadly trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah are widely seen now as one of the Premier League's best ever scoring partnerships.

Mane, Firmino and Salah have scored a combined 38 times in the Premier League this season and had fired Liverpool 25 points clear at the top of the table before the coronavirus pandemic brought football to a shuddering halt.

But Neville, who spent 20 trophy-laden years at United - and saw some of the best striking talents in the world pass through the doors in his time - believes Liverpool's current crop don't rank above Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo, who scored an astonishing 79 goals between them in all competitions in the 2007-08 season.

Speaking on Sky Sports' The Football Show, Neville said: 'Tevez for a year with Rooney and Ronaldo was just breathtaking, it was out of this world. Not just because of the quality of the players, but there was a selfish, horrible, nasty determination with those three.

'Ronaldo in a different way on the pitch, he wouldn't go around kicking and hassling people, hustling, he was immense in terms of his performance levels, but Rooney and Tevez were street fighters but with unbelievable ability and there was something of that front three.

'The best front three in the Premier League, you'll never beat those three for me. You can talk about Mane, Salah and Firmino, I love them to bits, plus [Raheem] Sterling, [Sergio] Aguero and [Leroy] Sane at City but you look at that front three of Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo at their peak, it was out of this world.'

Argentina star Tevez only spent two years at Old Trafford before leaving the club for their arch-rivals in 2009.

Speaking about his acrimonious exit, Neville added: 'What annoyed me about Tevez was that he downed tools in his second season, starting sitting on the treatment bench, coming out late for training, started messing around, he was playing the club and I couldn't stand that.

'I was a ferocious Man United person on the inside, never thought of anything else in my life, only United every single day and the idea someone would come in to that changing room and not be at his best.

'I understood he had circumstances but his people were in his ear all the time, he was so led by his people and it was always going to come to an end like it did. I felt disappointed that, as a professional, he didn't act the right way.

'I don't have a problem with players leaving the club, David Beckham left the club and Cristiano Ronaldo left the club, Ruud van Nistelrooy left the club, all great, great players but there was a way to leave the club when you were there.

'The problem I had with Tevez isn't that he left to play for Manchester City, which is a problem for me, that wasn't the main issue, it was the way it played out in those last few months, I didn't like it'