Gary Neville: Why Harry Kane Will BREAK Alan Shearer’s Record

0:00The 2026 FIFA World Cup meal at McDonald's is underway with one of nine legendary cups in the lineup. Christian Pulisic, David Beckham, Laminio Mal, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Son Hyung-min, Alfonso Davies, Santi Jimenez. And between the posts, it's Grimace. Get one of nine collectible cups with a FIFA World Cup meal.

0:25Gary Neville: At participating McDonald's for a limited time. While supplies last. All rights reserved. of 2026 McDonald's at FIFA World Cup 2026. He's a really serious guy, Harry. You never thought you could see anybody that would be as prolific a striker as Alan Shearer. And I think if he comes back to the Premier League in the next year or so, I think he'll still come in and finish off Alan's record. He will become England's greatest ever goalscorer, the Premier League's greatest ever goalscorer. Welcome to Rio Meats. Before the World Cup, I've decided to come back to Manchester, where I've invited one of my old teammates to come and spend a bit of time with me.

0:56And for these interviews, Airbnb have sorted out some amazing stays. So let's welcome someone else to the pod.

1:08Gary Neville: Here we go. Got it. You all right? How you doing? You all right? Long time. What is this real? No, you know, it's just got Airbnb sorted us out. It's nice. Yeah, it's nice. Really nice. It's apartments there. Wow. Underground house. This is posh, isn't it? What's this? It's unbelievable. I need to stay here. 007, isn't it? 007. You know, when I talked about getting you on here, I was thinking, Gary always puts himself down. Seriously, you do, don't you? You're one of the best right-backs to play in the Premier League's history, but you always put yourself down. Why? I don't know, really. Do you know why?

1:44Gary Neville: I think it comes from a fact that there's an acceptance that whichever way you look at it, I usually played, if I wasn't injured for the first probably 12 years at United, from 95 through to 2007, I played probably every week. That was fit. But I was probably, I reckon if you said to me, who was the least talented player in our team? And I don't undersell the fact that I did a good job and to be fair, I communicated well and I had good standards. But I was the least talented player in our whole team. And that's just a fact. That's not like, so if you go through the team and think, right, Patrice, you, Vida, Edwin, in Scholesy, Caras, Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo.

2:32Gary Neville: I don't fit. If you think about me and that team and I think to myself, actually, I am the least talented person in that team. If you said to Real Madrid, Barcelona, pick a player in our team, I'd be last pick. I'd be last pick in the schoolyard, do you know what I mean? Do you know my greatest achievement? People ask me what my greatest achievement is and to be fair, I don't really... It's the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson never signed another right-back the whole time I was at the club. Now, sometimes, obviously, Raphael and Wes and Shazie and Phil were always homegrown products. So there's an element of that.

3:08Gary Neville: But he never felt the need to go and sign another right-back. And I think that's probably quite a big achievement in some ways, that he could have easily gone and sort of upgraded me if he wanted to. But I think he thought he got things from me, maybe, that he couldn't get from others. So he might have brought in a more talented right-back from an ability point of view. I don't think he thought he could get from them what maybe he got from me on the other bits, maybe. But yeah, I was the least talented player in the United team that I played in. And I just feel always that I was a supporting member of...

3:38Gary Neville: And think of it like you think about U2, Coldplay, the Beatles. Not many people talk about the bass player. Do you know what I mean? Now, they're really important, aren't they? But I think of myself as a bass player. Solid, I'm there. but actually if I wasn't there one night and let's say I was ill another bass player came in but Mick Jagger was there or John Lennon and Paul McCartney or Bono it'd be alright still getting away with it do you know what I mean it's that type of thing I know my place I think I know what you're saying was you ever last pick at school? you couldn't have been last pick at school no Phil was no I wasn't I mean at school everyone every football player that I've ever spoken to they always were a goal scorer so I scored goals from midfield at school did you?

4:27Gary Neville: yeah and then I came to United as a midfield player and I was midfield from 11 to 13 and then Bex joined Scolsey joined Butty joined Ben Thornley Keith Gillespie Giggs was a year older and then all of a sudden I realised I wasn't a midfielder anymore because I just thought these players were a different level so I moved to right back Jim Ryan moved me to right back didn't he? he's always a good manager a good coach somewhere identifies that against White move there. I argued with him. I remember going up to the office at the Cliff and him saying to me, and he was really quite logical, Jim. And I don't pay enough credit to Jim Ryan because I always mention Brian Kidd, Nobby Stiles, Stralix Ferguson, Eric Harrison, who was my mentor.

5:07Gary Neville: But Jim Ryan, who's my reserve team coach, said to me, he said, I'm going to be really honest with you, Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister are the centre-backs. You're not displacing them. You're not as good as those two. And he's just signed David May. so he's not going to put you in there. But Paul Parker started to pick up a couple of injuries and his ankles sore. And Paul Parker, I love Paul Parker, he's a brilliant player. And he said, Dennis Irwin's never going to move at left back and you're not a left back. He said, the only place you can ever play for Manchester United, in my opinion, is right back.

5:37Gary Neville: He said, so I'm going to start playing your right back for the reserves. I went, no Jim, I'm a centre back. I love playing centre back. And he actually overruled me. And that was probably one of the, and I don't think that came from the boss. I think that generally came from Jim. and I generally believe that decision to play me 10 or 12 games at right back in 1994 in the reserves probably changed the direction of my whole career because from that point on I was a right back and he insisted I had to play right back and I didn't see it at the time. When you look at and think about what you've achieved and what you've done as a player post-career what makes you proudest about your life so far?

6:16Gary Neville: I'm enjoying my post-football career as much as my football career. That's mad that, isn't it? Yeah. Really. I love, I absolutely love my life. I love, I feel like privileged and honoured to go and watch football matches to do what I'm doing and sort of like the things that I do. I mean, I was obsessed with United when I played for United, but I do love my life. I do love getting up every morning. I've got enthusiasm and excitement about what's happening. And I think, right, I've got to go for it again. and I feel a responsibility because we have five or six businesses and there's probably five, six, seven hundred people in those businesses and I feel an enormous responsibility to those people to represent them to make sure that they're okay and that I look after them and you know, so there's a lot of big responsibility with that but yeah, I don't know I fill my day as much as I possibly can that balance, that work-life balance people talk about I'm not sure if I get it right Where we're from, England I think it's a representation of England in that people aspire to become successful through hardware.

7:21That's a really good way to achieve things, isn't it? You need a bit of luck, I think, but you wouldn't want to rely on the luck. You want to make sure that you get all stones and make sure you look underneath and you take care of it all.

7:34Gary Neville: But like people say about your heroes and stuff, and you think sometimes your heroes, like Brian Robson was my hero growing up. But as I get older and I think about my grandparents living to the age of 80 and working to the age of sort of late 70s. My mum's still working now at 75, 76, and she's played netball up until a year ago. And I think really, like, that really inspires me. And actually, young people inspire me a lot as well. I used to think in the dressing room, actually, when I was like 32, 33, it was you lads that were inspiring me. It wasn't like I wasn't thinking about players that were older than me or the manager inspiring me at that point.

8:09Gary Neville: I'd heard hundreds of his team talks. But the likes of yourself and Patrice, the energy that you brought into the changing room inspires then older players the gaffer used to say that i'll never forget the gaffer used to always say that if you when you retire you start it starts eating away at your life yeah and you see so it's a quicker route to go down yeah i've always thought about that and i my missus sometimes sometimes to me probably omnis is the same to you like you're going to slow down at some point and i think so if i slow down i might really slow down and i won't be attractive to you do you know what i mean and life becomes very short at that point Do you know what I mean?

8:43So you come across as very patriotic. I know you as patriotic from being in the changing room with you and playing with England and whatnot. How important was playing for England for you?

8:51Gary Neville: I absolutely love playing for England. I feel that, I don't know how you feel about your England career. I said at the end of my career it was a waste of time and it was the wrong probably context of saying it, but I felt like I let, I felt like I let not my country down, but I felt like not winning, not winning a tournament, not bringing that trophy home, that was a massive letdown. Do you think we were good enough though to do it? Because a lot of people call us the golden generation but you look at the teams we were against, there were some big teams with great players. Yeah, look obviously we weren't good enough Rio and that's the thing but I don't know, I felt like I was so used to winning at United, so used to sort of what would be coming out on top and then with England, this massive event every two years of qualifying for a tournament and then getting there and the tens of thousands of England fans that follow the country everywhere and then just letting us know.

9:41Gary Neville: letting them down and having to do that press conference, walking through the mix zone after a game when you've been knocked out. That was a continual low point every couple of years. And I just think that for me, I absolutely loved playing for my country. I know people say at times, I didn't sing the national anthem. Do you want to look back, it was a mistake that. I'm a stubborn... you know what I mean? Do you think that makes you more patriotic though, singing the national anthem? No, it doesn't make me more patriotic. I absolutely love my country. So why was it a mistake then? Do you know something that's interesting?

10:11Gary Neville: So in 1996, you were in 96, we line up. And I had, Rio, you know how superstitious, but also how routine I was before a match. Obsessed. Eh? Obsessed with it. Obsessed with my routine. So the idea of coming out and having to sing broke my routine. It broke my routine. And I thought, I can't, I'm just going to focus my first pass, the duel I'm about to encounter, my first tackle, my positioning on the pitch. I'm thinking about the game. And me and Steve McManaman didn't sing the national anthem in the first game of Euro 96. We didn't sing it in any of the games. And I always remember an FA counsellor came up to me after the game in the dressing room.

10:51Gary Neville: I can't remember his name now. Might have been Geoff Thompson, maybe the chair. I remember when you set the glasses on. And he said, sing the national anthem. Did he? And you can imagine an FA counsellor coming up to me telling me to sing the national anthem. We can't say the words on the screen right now, sorry. I'm not being told what to do. No, you know what I mean? people might think whatever i'm not being told what to do by an fa counselor and i dug my heels in and i was stubborn and i didn't do it but now so when i was a coach for england and now when for instance the carabao cup final two weeks ago city are playing arsenal the national anthem's being sung i'm singing it so i would sing it now in the summer when england playing the tournament so now i see the way in which it's interpreted that that's me not being patriotic now i think if you're from manchester or liverpool as well there is an element of i was booed playing for england i was called a Munich playing for England.

11:38Gary Neville: That was called a Red Bastard playing for England. We were sung about all the time. You know, if you hate Man United, you know, stand up if you hate Man U and all that sort of stuff. Do you remember that? The old Wembley. The old Wembley. So I've experienced all that. My experience in the early days for England was amazing. It was the best thing in my life playing for England and United. But we were abused for three, four years. My brother got abused after 2000 heavily. Bex got abused, my best mate, after 98. Wazza got abused, was another teammate. mate and obviously a good mate of yours, a friend of mine, in 2006.

12:11Gary Neville: So every time I saw a United player in a tournament get abused, I just felt a little bit more, you dug in a little bit because then the United fans would basically back Argentina or the other countries against us. United became, you know, Manchester United at that time became a little bit anti-England. The incident with you, obviously I sort of said, let's go on strike. Do you know what I mean? So all these things sort of just meant that there were lots of things that i felt there was an anti-manage united situation with england but i absolutely loved playing for my country and the one thing that i say is i never retired from england and i always said i would never retire from playing for my country because my country need me i go so when fabio capello called me up in i think it's 2009 just for two friendly games in the summer i went straight away didn't play a game but for two two games i was there for two weeks i would never not be there for my country.

13:03Gary Neville: I love my country, but, and I hate it when people criticise our country and I hate the state sometimes that we get ourselves in, but I love my country, but maybe at times they're not singing of the national anthem, maybe little things point towards me maybe having a doubt, but yeah, that's not the case. Just me being stubborn and backing myself into a corner. You just mentioned it there. I was going to talk about it a bit later, but I might as well touch on it now about the strike. Obviously, my missed drug test, that whole big case and that whole big shenanigans it was really in the end but we never spoke about that i never spoke to you even personally this is the first time we've actually even spoken about it and i actually didn't know it was obviously 2003 i got banned for missing a drug test and um i remember a quote that come out from you would like it said we would always back a teammate no matter what they did and I didn't actually know anything about this Kieran Dyer rang me and said Rio your teammate Gary Neville wow what I've just been witnessed well I've never seen anything like it what was your initial feelings and why did you feel so strongly about that I mean look I'd been the I'd been the union rep for seven or eight years at United and I feel like when you played for Sir Alex there was an element of togetherness and sort of you fight for everything he was a He was a union man, wasn't he?

14:24Gary Neville: Yeah, he was a union man. And I just felt quite sort of principled that... The thing for me was, it wasn't your ban that actually I would have the problem with, because you hadn't been banned at that point. If you remember, this was pre-tournament 2004, and you'd not had your hearing. Yeah. So the reason I was saying, this is ridiculous, England suspended you and banned you before the actual hearing, which was post-tournament. So my view was, if they suspend you after the tournament, because that's the consequence, no problem. You know full well we have to pay for our dues when things don't go our way.

14:56Gary Neville: If you get sent off in a football match, you miss three matches. But my view was that the FA took you out before that. And I wasn't a fan of the guy who was running the FA at the time. David Davis? No, Mark Palios. Yeah, I wasn't a fan. What a fan. So I sat down with him on my own, one-on-one. I'd run Gordon Taylor up on the way. and said, Gordon, you need to do something about this. I said, this is ridiculous. We're banning players before we've even basically had a hearing. I said, my view is, let Rio play, have the hearing after the World Cup. After the World Cup, if Rio gets banned for three, four months, because that's the outcome, no problem.

15:38Gary Neville: We accept process, we accept due process, no problem at all. But you can't literally unilaterally decide to. Anyway, I went and had a sit-down with Mark Palios when I got there, and I said, you were an ex-player. I said, if your mate in the changing room basically made, a mistake or made an error what would you do would you just like turn them in and I just couldn't I couldn't get my head around it and I said you need to basically overturn your decision they were never going to do that um so when did you think about what we're going to we're going to call a strike then so basically I went to see Bex who's the captain I said we need to get all the players together because I feel quite strongly about it and we had a play we got all the players together and we had an anonymous vote we had an anonymous vote and it was unanimous there are a couple of players who've come out since they said they voted against it they're lying we had a lying that's unanimous i looked at every single piece of paper and it was unanimous that we would all go on strike wow um the problem was we were playing turkey on the saturday if you remember and if we didn't play we weren't going to go to a euros just something it's a big lesson for me never start something that you're not going to follow through and when i think about it now in the end I could start to see players sort of after about a day or so thinking that their agents were into them you can't do this you can't follow through with it terrible the media the media were coming on top um and the boss rang me I think this has gone as far as it can because I can see I can see it falling in around you you're not going to get the support of all the players they're all going to go and you're going to end up ruining your whole career and you're going to end up ruining your whole you're going to be just known for this he said so you need to basically back down and at the end I spoke to my dad after that and he said if you've not got people with you you can't go through with it and so to speak that conversation with Sir Alex and my dad and he told me something if you've not got people coming along on the journey with you and you don't think they're going to follow through don't start it in the first place it's the sort of thing that you know now I would take into sort of any principle it's almost like saying you're going to hit someone and you don't hit them you lose a lot you know what I mean I've never hit anyone in my life by the way but you know what I mean people who are going to hit someone it's that type of thing almost like threatening people but then not following through with it so yeah it's a learning a big learning but I was adamant at the time to basically stand for what I thought was right well I've never said thanks but thanks for that because seriously didn't get me anywhere but you know it's the fault that counts sometimes and the step in that direction but do you know something it's a big risk for a player to do that but Ria do you know what I'd seen you may or may not remember in Euro 96 we went over to Hong Kong and on the way back there was a plane got smashed up and Gaza obviously it's come out since Gaza sort of made some damage to the plane and it was a massive story and the FA wanted to know who had smashed the plane up and they were going to kick them out of the England squad pre-tournament and anyway Tony Adams got us in a room into a meeting and Stuart Pearce, Tony Adams there were a couple of the lads, Paulins and Tony Adams went we're fucking sticking together if they kick one out we all go out and we all agreed basically in that room that day that we would donate our match fees to pay for the plane and to fix it and everything like that but basically if the FA kicked someone out we'd all go and Tony Adams coined the term we're going to take collective responsibility so he called the FA guy in and he said we're going to take collective responsibility for this so if you want to kick anybody out in the squad you have to kick us all out and the FA at that point backed down nice that isn't it and it was it was a massive show of leadership and I had another little example we united with Steve Bruce I'd not turned up to a wives and our partners and player event when I was like 18, 19 and I said I was going to go and I just felt a bit nervous at the time of just going to this event.

19:41Gary Neville: I was young. And he came in the day after and he said, you come to every single event and you stay to the end. And he bollered me. And if you remember the Christmas do's, I'd be... Yeah, yeah, yeah, always. You've got to turn up. I don't like drinking. Well, you've got to turn up. Do you know what I would say? Turn up. You have to turn up. I don't care if you don't drink. I don't care if you don't like Irish pubs. I don't care if you don't like music and guitars. And booze. And booze. You just turn up. You be there. And it was just little lessons like that that just sticking together and that collective element of responsibility that always sort of like were in my head.

20:14Gary Neville: Honestly, it sounds crazy. It's a stupid comment to make, but the Christmas due in 99, I think we won the treble. Was it? Because of that? It was that good a night. We were so tight, so close. Can you tell us why?

20:33Gary Neville: I had the treble. No, but it just felt to me like we'd been quite average up to Christmas and we had the most unbelievable we used to have great Christmas do's and we used to have unbelievable parties like amazing them nights that made made they'd make good movies I'm telling you they'd be unbelievable but you know I always think 18

20:54what was it like though you know like going to the manager's office and asking for a night out or for the lad to go and have a drink I'd done it a couple of times it was like the walk to his door

21:05Gary Neville: do you remember him with me after the uh christmas party he actually blamed you really yeah yeah he played because i organized it obviously he blamed me um i answered him back in the dressing room i said no can he try he find every single one of us remember yeah two weeks wages everyone other than g he found everyone other than g sun park because g sun park didn't go because he was like he had to do something in career i can't believe it was now and i said boss that's not right i said you know it's me it's me and gigsy organized the party we'll take it and he brought me upstairs into his office after and he absolutely killed me.

21:37Gary Neville: He said, you never, ever question me ever again in front of the players. And then he used all the fine money to buy new gym equipment. I remember, it was a joke. I didn't believe it, I didn't go in the gym then. I don't know how much he must have collected. He must have collected like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds because you were all on fortunes. People don't believe me when I say to them, like, I'm going back to England now. And when England games are coming up, what was it like in the changing room after the games? Especially later on in the season when you were going for league titles and cup competitions and an England game would come out of the blue.

22:08Gary Neville: Well, the March game. Yeah. Did any of us ever go? Did any of us ever play in a March game for England? But you know, in Arsenal, Mikel Arteta, there was obviously... Yeah, 11 players. Nine players, 10, 11 players. So the year of the treble, the March game, me and Bex got pulled out of England. No injury? No injury, no. Just told. He's just not going. So does the doctor say something or do you have to just say... I don't know how he did it. I don't know what he did. But I just remember we just didn't go. We just didn't go in the match. He just wouldn't let us go. And that, to be fair, you look back now and I've got 85 caps and you think, well, how many did I miss like that when they got to 100?

22:42Gary Neville: But he just basically was so single-minded about United winning. He pulled us out. He pulled me and Bex out straight away. We played nearly every game that season, so he just said, you're not going. Would that have been a dilemma, given our Patriot you were? It was Glenn Hoddle, and I remember, so I had to turn up. So he made us turn up. And then he had a big row with Glenn Hoddle in the room. the gaffer did yeah well on the phone so what happened was Glenelg said I said I'm feeling my back a little bit I'm not playing he went this is Sir Alex Ferguson I was like well you ring him you ring him not me anyway rang him did a massive is it yeah but basically what I think the boss was saying to him was you've qualified type thing or you don't need them these lads are going to play in 10 games or whatever it is in the next few weeks we're trying to win a treble just these two have played all season you can have a couple of the other players and let these two come home and Glenn wasn't like that.

23:38Gary Neville: But I mean, it's mad really because your country is your country. England is England. But back then, there was that club v country thing. I don't know, it just felt different. I mean, a lot of us have spoken about it. The rivalries that we had with our other club's players I think did carry into England. It overshadowed, it overruled almost that togetherness or the bond that we could have built. Yeah, i think you probably to be fair weren't like that because you knew some of the lads from 21s didn't you and you knew some of the lads from say west ham or leeds and stuff like that because but if you've played just for united you had your own table you just come come down early eat and get out even some before some people have been arrived we've just oh and we would have me scolsey and phil we'd be down at breakfast at half seven in the morning we'd be gone because that's what we did we got up early and then similar for like for tea in the evening we'd be starving it's It's like a quarter to seven, we're in there.

24:32Gary Neville: We're finished by five to seven. People haven't even come in the room. But it's wrong. That is wrong now when I look back. When I think about camaraderie and spirit and togetherness, that's not right, that. Would that have changed when you become a coach? Because you obviously went on to coach. Yeah, but I think the lads were starting to get on with each other better anyway. And the rivalries of Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez, Alex Ferguson, those sort of rivalries that existed. Arsene Wenger, they were bitter, weren't they, those rivalries? Yeah, definitely. Liverpool hated Chelsea at that time.

25:01Gary Neville: Arsenal and United that was a real rivalry at that time so there's a real thing going on between the clubs and the managers and that just carried in Just on the coaching how much did you enjoy that at England? I really enjoyed it whilst I was with Roy love Roy to bits love Ray to bits Iceland is still that'll never leave me but I should when I think of what I live by in terms of my values of committing to things and being obsessed to do things I was working on Sky on the weekends I was doing my businesses during the week and I was just turning up to England. I wasn't doing the training practice.

25:34Gary Neville: I never coached a team, Rio. I was always doing the post-match analysis and the pre-match analysis. I was doing the video work. But still, an England coach... It's not enough for Gary Neville, that. No, an England coach. Obviously, I went to Valencia as well and that was something that... I didn't really want to be a coach. The mistake, that period of trying to do everything and I definitely should have stayed clear of the coaching. Looking back, but you're young and you say yes when you get offered an opportunity. you just say, yeah, I'm going to go for it. And some of the lads have done that.

26:01Gary Neville: I've seen other lads take jobs, you know, I've played with since that they just, that eagerness or that feeling that they can't say no. That's what I mean. One of Roy's best ever sort of sentences, remember, no is a sentence. Okay. Remember, no is a sentence. And do you know something? Getting good at saying no is something that I had to probably learn a little bit later on in terms of like saying no to things and just not getting pulled along and sort of, you know, dragged into things that basically I should have said no to and should have known better. There's not loads of people who can sit here and say they've been up close and personal with the current England captain as a coach, Harry Kane.

26:44Yeah. What did you learn about him while being in them squads coaching?

26:50Gary Neville: I'm trying to think of words that we'd put into sort of like context. his professionalism his performance levels his seriousness about the game about what football is to him yeah the real thing I think Ron Atkinson when he signed Brian Robson from Manchester United said this is no risk this is gold and I think Harry Kane's gold and to be fair I look back at the signing of you from Leeds and Wazza from Everton Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest they're gold Declan Rice they were gold when they signed you could automatic no worries when you came from Leeds having played with you with England when Wazza came from Everton I played with him for England then for probably what a year gold guarantee absolute certainty absolute guarantee like almost like it'll look cheap in a few years it'll look cheap you just knew at the time because I played with you obviously with England and stuff I think Harry Kane, he's like, if Sir Alex Ferguson was the manager of Manchester United, he would never have allowed Harry Kane to be anywhere.

28:02Gary Neville: He'd have literally made sure he came to Old Trafford and Declan Rice would have been the same. I don't think Declan Rice would have gone anywhere other than Old Trafford from West Ham. He'd have been all over those two. Exactly the same thing I say. Yeah. So those two for me are like gold in terms of sort of an English player that you think you can build around, in your spine, difficult to get, rare, leaders in their own way. And I think Roy Keane was like that, obviously, at United. You were like that. Wazza was like that. Cristiano wasn't, obviously. He was very different at the time. But players like that were just certainties.

28:41Do you look at that now at United and go that there's a lack of investment in English talent now in that sense? when you look at those players being allowed to go to Arsenal, being allowed to go to Bayern Munich at critical times.

28:53Gary Neville: Yeah, but I think the signing of Van Persie doesn't mean it has to be English. It has to be somebody who's established in the Premier League that you know is going to deliver for you. So I do like the signings that they made last summer of Kunja and Bermot because they'd had that grounding in the Premier League. They weren't gold, but the removal of risk that they played in the Premier League, they were hungry, they were stepping up a level to a club that they knew. they weren't sort of like stepping down from a club that's in Europe that like you're thinking they're coming for a little bit of a swan song at the end of their career.

29:21Gary Neville: They're still young and hungry. They've got things to prove. And they've actually shown they can handle the Premier League. So I do think those types of signings are good. But you're right. There are very few players that you think you could sign that would be, there's talk of Cole Palmer. That looks like a signing that could be gold. If he was, you know, if he'd come to Old Trafford, I don't think it would happen really. I think Chelsea will hang on to him. but there are very few signings like that available. They're like once every four or five years, aren't they? These types of players become available.

29:51You mentioned those players there, Roy Keane especially, and all the players look up to him, you can see that respect. Is that the same for Harry and the England squad?

29:59Gary Neville: Harry will, very different than, say, a Roy Keane or a Stuart Pearce when I was in England, or Tony Adams. But Harry, I think, would, if he said something with the players, it would stick. it would like if he said something it would go lads were doing this and they'd all go okay because he wouldn't do it he would do it sparingly with thought and intelligence but seriousness he's a really serious guy Harry I thought when I was in England like really like focused on what he's doing I mean you never thought you could see anybody that would be as a prolific a striker as Alan Shearer but Harry Kane is that and I think if he comes back to the Premier League in the next year so I think he'll still come in and finish off Alan's record I'll be amazed if he's not playing until he's 38 somewhere getting that record he will become England's greatest ever goalscorer the Premier League's greatest ever goalscorer he's having a little bit of a holiday I think not holiday but he's having a little bit of a soiree in Germany which is great for him and he's got experience over there but the fact he's going to Bayern Munich I don't know what you think about Bayern Munich, but I think of that as a really professional, serious football club.

31:15Gary Neville: When we played in Bayern Munich, it was like, this is a struggle. They remind me of Man United in Germany. So for me, Juventus and Bayern Munich were the two teams when we were playing that were like really serious football clubs in Europe. Barcelona and Real Madrid always had that bit of the glitz and glamour and the sort of special spirit, but the real serious professional clubs that you felt were like Juventus, Bayern Munich. And I felt that, yeah, you're right, Bayern Munich is a similar club to Manchester United in that way I felt. Did you see Ballon d 'Or in him? No, I didn't see that in him.

31:46Gary Neville: I didn't think he would get to the level that he had. Do you remember that season where he went from being a brilliant goal scorer to all of a sudden being the best passer in the team? When did that happen? It was like when Jose was at Tottenham or something. Do you remember he kept dropping in? Yeah, yeah. Turning. Playing people in. What's going on? And everyone thought at the time this was sort of like him ageing and not being a striker anymore. Everyone put it down to, oh, he's dropping in. No, this was him. like taking his game to like the next level his passing is unbelievable so absolutely and I never saw him at that level at the level he's got to no and the consistency nowhere near that but he was a serious professional I knew he was gold in terms of his attitude and the way in which he approaches the game so what made you make him take corners then?

32:32Gary Neville: after all that so do you know something my reasoning for it is if you think of Declan Rice taking Declan Rice is 6 foot 2 he should be good in the air and why is he not in the middle for Arsenal because his delivery is exceptional so we had a real problem with England so basically we had a choice Wazza or Harry to take corners they're the only two players who literally could deliver a ball we did I did two things basically one was looked at who'd scored the most headed goals from corners and also just in job and Wazza was brilliant in the air and actually was a great goal scorer and and scored more goals from corners.

33:08Gary Neville: Harry, I think, had scored one goal, I think in the previous 18 months from a corner. Wow. For Tottenham, and he's a prolific goal scorer. And then the other thing is, we're basically on the training pitch, sent them both out to the corners and let them take some corners. And Harry's delivery, you've seen Harry's passing since. It's ridiculous. His delivery is unbelievable. So we thought, if we can get that delivery in there, that sort of whipped in like it was, that's going to bring us more goals than someone looping it in and Harry being in the middle. You know, I actually understand the reasons for doing it.

33:40Do you know what I mean? But obviously it can be laughed at and people can discredit it after.

33:44Gary Neville: It became something that was mocked, laughed at, discredits you as a coach maybe or whatever. But the thinking was, if we don't get good delivery, we're not going to get goals on set pieces. And we had no one in that team that could deliver set pieces. Honestly, if you just look through it, I can't remember the exact team. There was no one that was naturally a corner taker for their clubs. Waza was the only one and we just felt that wasn't right. I bet you wish you had body-trained Alexander-Arnold now. Well, even he doesn't get a game. Yeah, yeah, I know. But, I mean, obviously, Declan takes them.

34:12Saka. And he's brilliant. Bakaio Saka, brilliant at corners.

34:14Gary Neville: So, you've got Bakaio Saka on the right, Declan in the middle, and there's probably others in that team that can take them as well. But there's really good set-piece takers now in the squad. And Gareth changed that enormously, just in terms of the set-piece play. If you remember, he did the... Yeah, yeah. Was it the Love Train? Yeah, yeah. They started paying a lot of attention to set-pieces. But, yeah. just Trent Alexander-Arnold I mentioned him I can't have a conversation with you without talking about him because he's probably one of the most talked about right backs we've heard about for years especially in our country as a pure right back like how highly do you rate him what's your first thoughts when you think about Trent Alexander-Arnold exceptional talent like exceptional different level I've never seen anything like it from a point of delivery from a full back position I was probably one of the first commentators pundits to give him a hard time for his defending being not as serious.

35:08Gary Neville: I used to say to him, he's going to have to get serious about his defending or it's going to cost him. Explain that a little bit, elaborate, because it's quite easy. I understand what you're saying, but I think people watching or listening wouldn't necessarily. Just tidy up things on your side. The say thing that you used to say to me before every game about nothing down your side. So make sure that your left winger doesn't get joy. Make sure you're really low. Sometimes Trent would go and close down a play, not necessarily now but in his early days in the first team in the first two or three years he would amble over to a left winger quite slowly and he'd be quite upright in his body you can see him can't you quite upright and that's what he's like when he's on the ball he's quite upright and he put as a defender you need to be like that so you can go in there or you can go there because if a left winger's going to go past you you need to be able to go that way so really start to get alert and start to get really busy in terms of where you're looking at sort of like you you look like you're sort of serious about you defending, you look like you've got that tenacity.

36:02Gary Neville: And I never felt he looked like he had that tenacity and that sort of, like he placed that much importance on it. And I don't think he ever, when the ball went past him, I don't think I ever saw him looking like it was getting back in. Do you know what you mean? Sprinting. And getting back in. It's hard to do that. It's getting back in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what it's like. If you're playing at United and that ball goes over your head, you can get back in to that near post and you make sure you sprint back. You've got to make sure and imagine that you're going to get back in there and stop something.

36:28Gary Neville: and he wouldn't do sometimes. He'd almost let his right centre-back come out behind him, and then he wouldn't sprint back in, he wouldn't get back in. So things like that, which are the basics of being a full-back, he didn't do in his early first two or three years. We had some bad habits, but I went to meet him. I did an interview with him, and I was so impressed by him, and I was shocked by the fact that I'd read him wrong. The love for the game, the games he watches, the questions he asks me, I really enjoyed the conversation with him. and I do believe from what I hear and I spoke to people that he does do quite a lot of defensive work in terms of like you know one on ones and getting out to the ball and people that I've spoken to he does do a lot of that type of work Did he ask you about any defending or tips and stuff like that?

37:11Gary Neville: and he did ask me loads of questions on camera and off camera and it was almost like a two way interview it was really like quite good just speaking to him and I thought right okay so part of me half of me Rio thinks we're mishandling a generational talent and it's same old England how can we not get a player with that level of ability into our team? That's what part of me thinks and then part of me thinks World Cups are about being the best team defensively we know that the teams that win it ordinarily are the best teams defensively obviously they've got players going forward but they tend to also be really good at keeping clean sheets and if you're going into a major game against France and Mbappe was on the left, you're going to play Kyle Walker.

37:59Gary Neville: You're probably going to play Rhys James because he's a bit physically stronger. So there's two things. One, he's obviously got a problem that he's had Kyle Walker, an incredible right back, particularly defensively in his speed. Rhys James is a bit of a blend of Kyle and Trent in the sense he's got the actual delivery, but he's also got the sort of power in his running that Trent's not got. I think the fact that Kieran Trippi played games in front of him And now, Jed Spence or Livramento or... I'm trying to think of others. Konza. Konza.

38:46Gary Neville: He's got Davies at the table just behind him. Davies going for his collectible cup. A steal by Henri, who pulls his own collectible cup. Collect one of nine legendary cups with a FIFA World Cup meal. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. While supplies last, all rights reserved. 2026 McDonald's at FIFA World Cup 2026. Hello, I'm Max Rushton. The World Cup is back and Football Weekly is going daily. If you want award-winning soccer coverage from a podcast that's been over-analyzing the game for more than 20 years and still hasn't run out of opinions or just repeats the same ones over and over again, this is where you'll find it.

39:16Gary Neville: We'll be producing 33 daily episodes across the tournament, breaking down all the action, the results and of course the drama. Can the US make it out of the group stage and into the spotlight on the biggest stage? World Cup Daily, listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on YouTube.

39:32Gary Neville: That must be really, really tough for him now. Because I can think he can live with Rhys James and Kyle because they're two exceptional full-backs, Rhys when he's fit. But I think now when you've got Konza playing in front of you and Liv Rimento, I think they're really solid, good players. but that's a real this is now Gareth Southgate it's Thomas Tuchel and you start to ask the question are they both wrong? So I'm sat in now a little bit stuck in between the idea of we're mishandling a massive talent who should be in England when I can't understand how he's not in the 26 it's ridiculous to are they both wrong the managers why and you've always got to ask yourself a question why would a manager leave a player out if they thought that they would make them better to win a World Cup.

40:18Gary Neville: Because Thomas Tuchel and Gareth Southgate definitely want to win the World Cup and the European Championships. We know that. They're going to take the players that they think are best equipped to do it. So they're not doing it because of a personal dislike or anything like that. They're doing it because they don't feel that Trent will be contributory towards basically a tournament success. There's also one other thing with Trent. I think if he was on the bench, you know what me and you are going to be saying in the studio for ITV or BBC. We're going to be sat there if England are playing someone and you've got Konza at right back and they've not scored a goal, we're going to be saying, get Trent on.

40:55Gary Neville: And I don't think sometimes England managers want that player that it's so obvious that you need to get them on. Yeah, true. So there's a bit of that as well. I'm going to ask you, what do you think? Do you think England are mishandling or do you think they're actually right, the managers? Because obviously you know. But I do think about the aspects you mentioned about there's some basic fundamentals in a defender that are non-negotiables. Like you say, the recovery runs and the switching on, concentration. And I liken him to myself at West Ham. At West Ham, I thought about being on the ball. I thought about what I'm going to do with the ball.

41:31How am I going to hurt or do a skill against the forward? And didn't think about the weakest part of my game that I actually needed to think about. I should have reversed it and thought about all my defensive stuff, really focus on that and my natural ability will take care of itself football on the ball. and I've always thought if he'd done that but Leeds got you ready

41:48Gary Neville: for that didn't it a little bit Leeds built you the other thing Rio is giving a goal away as a defender is a massive problem yeah if you give a goal away that is a big problem if I give a goal away which we both did by the way of course we did you weren't sleeping you were struggling that night you know if we give a goal away we were like going into that dressing room I wouldn't be on social media no you're going under if I give a goal away because that's my job it's the only thing I have to do is stop a goal going in, stop my man scoring. Now look, that didn't happen all the time. You did give goals away and I did.

42:21Gary Neville: But I wonder whether there is that, not necessarily with Trent, but I wonder whether there is that care to making an individual error or not, you know what I mean? I just wonder whether there is that. And I know he cares, this is not in relation to Trent Alexander-Arnold, but I wonder in his early years at Liverpool whether he was setting up goals, he was scoring goals. I mean, his assist record is a joke. So you think to yourself, I wonder whether that was just sort of a massive, almost like focus for him and the actual defensive side of it wasn't as big a focus because Jurgen Klopp to be fair built around him a little bit he had that relationship with Salah on that right hand side which was special probably the unbelievable partnership you think of like me and Bex together them two the assists and goals they scored in a five six year period on that right hand side was off the scale so I think there is an issue with that who would you have so the question is if you had if you were Thomas Tuchel sorry you're real Ferdinand you're right centre back for England are you picking Kyle Walker or Rhys James to be right back or are you picking Trent Alexander-Arnold I think it's game dependent opponent dependent I think if I'm if we're going to have all the ball group stages you're putting Trent in I'm putting Trent in but if I know that they've got their super strength in their team is their left winger I'm going to play Kyle or Rhys James yeah But I think if that narrative and you build that narrative within your squad to make them understand these things and you're all going to have huge value that is something that I think the players today because they're so used to being brought in and out they should be okay with that.

43:58Our generation wouldn't stand for that. That's a big light slap in the face. You'd want a solid back four

44:02Gary Neville: wouldn't you? You'd want that back four to be consistent. I look back at players sometimes in our football careers with England Scolese Matt Letizia maybe Paul and Joe Cole those lads that were really talented and you wonder whether they would have got more games playing either today or in a more progressive nation and things about football slightly different than we do yeah definitely I agree if Trent was if he was Spanish he's playing all the time 100 % if he was Brazilian yeah he is Cafu really in some ways I mean Cafu to be fair was a good defender but he is a bit like Cafu in the sense of that sort of type of fullback he could be a Brazilian Trent Yeah, definitely, with the way he sees the game.

44:44Just talking about the World Cup as well and staying on that, I think it's... People don't understand the importance of family in that time, do they? In that little window of a tournament. How important was family for you during a tournament?

44:56Gary Neville: Yeah, my mum and dad would always come out. Emma would always come out. I do think we got that wrong in 2006, Rio. It was a circus, wasn't it? Wag stuff. Yeah, it was a circus. It was just ridiculous. And the media sort of what would be, were honing in. there was a new set of media which was concentrating on the wives and girlfriends and then you had obviously a sports media journalist that was concentrating on the team but they seemed to merge with each other and then in 2006 in Baden-Baden they put the journalists in the same hotel as our parents and wives like you're talking about a cocktail of shit there aren't you that is a shit sandwich if you've ever seen one if you want a shit sandwich in a tournament you put 150 parents, wives, girlfriends with 70 English journalists and paparazzi in the same hotel.

45:44Gary Neville: It's a mad cocktail, that, isn't it? And in amongst that, you had Carragher's family. I know you'll take that in the right spirit, but fucking hell, just fueling the whole thing. They were loud then. They were loud. They knew they were about in the hotel. The Carragher's were in town. No, it's mad. Do you know what? This is more of a personal thing. I think that something that links us both is losing like hugely important figures in our lives. We've never even spoke about this either. But my mum obviously passed away and your dad. Your dad was always someone I always say to people that he was a life and soul.

46:20When we won trophies, we had parties. When we were Christmas parties, sometimes you'd be there at the beginning, a bit in the pubs, in the Irish pubs you mentioned. You won't be there at the beginning, you'll be there at the end. But he was the man for the sing-song. Some of the songs I knew and learned at a club was because your old man was singing at the parties. Do you know what I mean? How important, obviously, was he? But also then, in terms of when he did pass away, how was you able to cope and continue being you?

46:48Gary Neville: It's interesting because just before I go into that, obviously in Baden-Baden, do you remember the picture of my dad? Yeah. So I was fuming. I was fuming. So basically, I'm fuming. So I say, right, we've got to get rid of this circus out of time. Can you just explain the picture, though? So basically my dad, there's a picture of my dad on the back page of, I don't know, it could be the Mirror, the People, News of the World or whatever it was back then, with an inflatable World Cup with all the players' wives. He's on a table with an inflatable World Cup singing, it's coming home, it's coming home.

47:21Gary Neville: And the headline was, Neville Neville in Baden-Baden. Unbelievable. Oh my God. I screamed at him. I said, I was fuming. Because I was really sort of not happy with the whole sort of wags thing, the family's thing, the circus that was going on. But yeah, it is. My dad, to be fair, was the life and soul of the party. He loved, obviously, he loved United, but he loved coming away with England. He was a massive influence on my life. Do you know why? Do you know how I coped with it when he passed away? was that I knew he would pass away like that. I knew he would pass away like that. I knew it would be instant.

48:02Gary Neville: And, you know, my dad goes to Australia. My sister gets appointed the England netball coach. Like, literally about two weeks before, I think they sort of sacked the England coach and she went to the World's in Australia, or Commonwealth's in Australia, World's in Australia. Typical mum and dad, straight away they book a flight to Australia. They're there within literally 10 days. a 24 hour flight, he gets there, he does 40 lengths in the pool, because he used to swim a lot, my dad was a good swimmer, believe it or not, he's a big bloke, he's a good swimmer, comes up, and then obviously he just collapses, and the mum hits his head against the bedside cabinet, and mum sees him and called, and obviously he's gone, and I flew over straight away, but I knew that's how he would go, I knew that he would always have a heart attack, and that sounds really sort of quite graphic but i knew the way he lived his life the stress the relentless relentless the non-stop the he drank he ate you know the last time i saw my dad was about a week before that because i'd gone away on holiday and he'd just met my sister's new partner who she's with now michael and they'd been out till three o 'clock in the morning in bolton in a pub and i saw him the day after and he's there he's got a pint in his hand or he was the gin and tonic actually i think at the time you know at the pub at like half one and just he lived his life to the absolute full and you couldn't maintain that level of sprint if you sprint like that you're just going to go like and fall off the edge of a cliff so i always you know obviously i was upset i was devastated but i just knew and i coped with the fact that how hell yeah you if you get if you accept the fact that your parents are going to die whilst you're alive and if that is going to happen that I always imagined that that was how my dad would go.

49:53Gary Neville: That he would just literally hit a brick wall and go. It's mad though. When it happened to my mum, I've never thought about my mum passing away. No, I don't know if I think about it a lot, but I always imagine what... It's interesting. I don't know whether there's something, to be fair, you want to keep in on it, but when my grandparents passed, I was always... For three of them, I was there at the point where they passed. I had to be there. And then, to be fair, when they're in the sort of, you know, when they're in that period between the sort of the passing and the funeral, I go and see them a lot.

50:26Gary Neville: So I go and see my grandparents a lot. I did the same with my dad. I go and see them a lot, talk to them, sort of cry, get emotional. And other people say they can't go and see them. They just, you know, people do it differently, don't they? But I think in that period between them all passing and then obviously the funeral, which is usually 10 days, two weeks. And my dad, it was like three or four weeks because they had to get him back from Australia. I remember going seeing them a lot and just getting upset in that period yeah and just sort of maybe sort of psychologically getting used to it of thinking about sort of how it would happen and then how do you cope and how do you move on and oh so when you're seeing your grandparents that's when you're thinking about your parents yeah I was thinking about my mum and dad and thinking well what's that how's this going to be and my dad was just a surefire cert to hit a brick wall at some point just the way in which he lived his life and so when it happened obviously i say i was devastated but there was almost like a realization that i knew that was going to happen i knew that the way in which sort of my dad was the way in which he lived his life to the absolute full in an unbelievable life you know he's watching my sister sort of play for england for netball over 100 times watching me and phil play for united and everton and england hundreds of times he had an unbelievable life and he traveled everywhere and watched us all the time but he always had a good time yeah that's a small that big smile massive smile great time always happy completely opposite of me yeah i was gonna say grumpy nev like what's happened there so yeah i just yeah i think that was the reason that i think people cope obviously all the time you've had to cope with incredible things rio um and i i just think that's how i coped with it it's like talking of coping the morning of the funeral uh the researchers behind the scenes told me that you you went to a business meeting that morning and your sister led England out of netball.

52:13Gary Neville: Yeah so basically my we went over to Australia my sister carried on coaching when we got there they basically said that they were just keeping him alive by the machine and I remember I remember my sister had a game the next day and we agreed that basically we'd turn the machine off she could after the game she'd finished the game and then she'd come back and when she came back we'd over there me Philip and Tracy my mum and basically we turned the machine off. So we made that decision that we had to turn the machine off at a certain point and Tracy, but we said let's not do it before Tracy plays, let's do it.

52:50Gary Neville: So Tracy went into that game, the team didn't even know, her team didn't even know and she came back and then basically we turned the machine off and we sort of, that was it then at that point. There is a, to be fair, I always remember the doctor coming in and sort of sitting down with us and you have to fill in a form like and my mum got asked a question um would you like to donate any of his organs and all of us went quiet and I didn't know whether my mum was going to snap and I didn't really say anything for once in my life and my mum went who the bloody hell would want that lot and I just thought do you know something my mum's amazing and I thought you know that just sums my mum up the idea of just getting on with it and mum um we went we went back to England then obviously we had to wait but yeah and then the morning of the funeral I'd had this event booked in with the council where we were going to launch our project in Manchester but there were people flying in from Asia there were people flying in from different parts of the world and I wouldn't let any I wouldn't let anyone down so I went and launched that project at 9 30 in the morning and then my dad's funeral was like at half 11 I went straight up there but you know something that there is a little bit of the abnormal about I think a player who played under Sir Alex Ferguson do you think there's a little bit something a bit like abnormal yeah I remember lads sometimes there were sometimes lads who had the parents pass away or they had sometimes Chris Sean or his dad yeah and sometimes they have lads who maybe their wives were I remember Andy Cole someone came into our dressing room and this was probably 95 96 and I remember someone saying that he was having a baby his wife had gone into hospital to have a baby and he said the team's been picked i'll play the game and i'll go he said the team hasn't been picked but the team's been picked i'm got i'm playing i always remember that so there's a bit of something about you know that dressing i don't know if it comes from that the idea of you have to continue you have to carry on is that or the manager the manager i think yeah there's an element of i think just that just that thing just of you've got to you've got to carry on and i always think that about a football player a lot of them have things going on before matches on a Saturday but in the 75 ,000 in Old Trafford Manchester United can't lose a football game because you've got a personal problem it's mad that isn't it you can't it's mad so you're going out onto that pitch that crowd that don't know about your personal problem it could be a relationship break up it could be someone's ill in your family I'm sorry you can't go out onto that pitch in front of those fans and let them down and use it as an excuse and use it as an excuse you've got to make sure you're right for them and that is it so there's an element of that I think runs through sort of the dressing room and I think runs through sort of like the club and that you don't let your teammates down, you don't let each other down, you don't let your family down.

55:35Gary Neville: Gossel was big on that, wasn't he? He was massive on not letting people down, not letting your teammates down, not letting your fans down. So I think there's an element of that and then, so there's an element of that when you sort of, your dad passes away or your mum passes away. What choice have you got? You've either got to stop or you've got to continue. And the only real choice that all of us have really is to continue. Yeah, no. I was the same. I threw myself into work. Like I was out all the time. I need my kids to see me being up, trying to be positive and being a good example in that sense or being an example in that sense.

56:05You know what, on your podcast, I've seen Cara and Keanu taking the mick out of you every now and again. Every now and again?

56:12Gary Neville: Every 10 minutes. I'm trying to keep it cold. But just you being on the go all the time and given what did happen, has ever you ever looked at that and thought, I'm going to adjust this a little bit? Roy did say that to me, I think, on the podcast last year. I think I had like a little rash here and maybe there. I need some cream. I need some, I can't remember what it was. And I said, I've got a wrap. And he said, you need to slow down, Gary. And when he does, when he speaks, it matters, you know what I mean? You need to slow down. So sometimes it does hit me a little bit. But it's difficult. It's difficult because, yeah, it's difficult to slow down.

56:47Gary Neville: I mean, yeah, it's not what I am. It's not what I do. It is mad though, isn't it? You are just, it's just like, the word relentless is you that is you relentless it's just constant but it's the word that sums up I think all of our lives the reason I call my business relentless and I did it because I thought what's the one word that I think most represents my last 20 years at United no matter what happened every single day win lose or draw you had to come back the next day next season if you won a Premier League you had to come back and win it again it was non-stop there was never there was never a point whereby you were able to relax and sort of say maybe when you won a trophy for a couple of days or something like that you might say but you were never allowed to sort of like come back the next season and I think that's just the life that everyone's living it's become normal hasn't it it has become normal I feel a bit like that like when are you going to stop but when you said I heard that you were going to live in Dubai now I I wouldn't do that and I don't think I could do that but actually there's a bit of admiration for the idea of sort of saying, right, I'm just going to step away from it a little bit.

57:57Gary Neville: You know, when you said I'm not doing television anymore and I'm going to sort of go away and sort of, I thought, yeah, that sounds great. I'm not sure I could do it or I wouldn't do it, I don't think. But it's bold to actually sometimes make that sort of decision to say, right, this is a massive change. And people do it all the time, obviously with work. But I just think, to be fair, I don't think I've got that in me. I live in Manchester I'll always live in Manchester because I feel like I do feel like I own my city I feel like I own the people there I feel like I need to be there and I feel like I need to be there for my businesses and I've set things going on the track that if I'm not there how can I expect them to work for me if I'm not there how can I expect people to turn up every day with enthusiasm with desire and commitment and love what they do if I'm not there that's how I feel a little bit about it So I think, no, I've committed to them, so I'm going to stay with them, you know what I mean?

58:55So I'm not going to go into this, but now you've said that, an incident a lot of people would have seen, it's actually gone viral now, this clip, crazy. He was walking through the city centre with your wife, I think on the way to a concert. A man who's been telling us now, just sitting here now, that he absolutely loves his city, will fight for his city, is loyal to his city, he's always going to stay here. How do you reflect on that type of incident and the actual response that you've been getting recently?

59:19Gary Neville: Our view was, if you get criticised, you get sung about from opposition fans, all's fair in love and war. But I do think there's a line when your wife's there. Yeah, I agree. Totally. And at the airport, my wife was there and my kids were there. So I think if I'm on my own, you could argue some people might say you brought it upon yourself. Okay, no problem. Have a go at me. You know, City fans maybe at Wembley. I think at... Yeah, yeah. Do you remember the Carabao Cup final? City fans behind me. Yeah, that's City fans having a go at me. I used to play for United. You understand that? I understand that.

59:48Gary Neville: To a point. I completely get that. You know what I mean? I smile at them, I go like that. That's fine, no problem at all. I think if you're actually in the street and you're with your wife or you're with your family, I'd expect a grown man to say, okay, not today. But then, you know, he didn't. I should have filmed him. He cut the camera off at a point where I think he started to make himself look a little bit silly. So he shortened the video. It's actually that video, he followed me for two minutes. Did he? Yeah. The video's about 30 seconds. So basically after that, I started smiling at him and he started getting really aggressive and sort of even more aggressive.

1:00:28Gary Neville: And to be fair, he's cut that bit off. He sort of left it in a bit of a thing. But I love my city and I'm not going to leave my city because basically a guy is having a go at me on a Saturday night. Emma just walks away from me. I know. Because she's frightened. Yeah, she's frightened as a lady. The guy's got an aggressive dog with him. It looked like an aggressive dog. It might not have been, but it looked like a bulldog. And I thought at one point, he's going to let the dog go. I generally thought he was going to let the dog go at one point, he didn't do it to be fair to him so I accept that but he was really like, he thought is he going to come over and hit me, is he going to come over and have a go is he going to let the dog go I'm walking to a concert, I'm walking to watch James play, band I love and it's Saturday night, 7 o 'clock, 8 o 'clock in Manchester, but you also think it's very rare the amount of love and conversation and sometimes humour it's normally humour issue is the liverpool fan a city liverpool fan always has a quip oh it's a little joke they can't walk past without saying something can they nudge nudge yeah the everton fan you think they're a little pool found for a minute but then they're an everton fan and then they sort of make a joke with you because of you know phil's played from city fans spot city fans a mile off i just a mile you can spot them out the way they look at you just know this is a city fan and And yet, usually, to be fair, I don't think I've ever had any aggression.

1:01:46Gary Neville: I've never had any aggression from City fans in Manchester. Generally, there's a humorous, there's a banter element to it. There's not an aggression. You know what I mean? That type of... I used to hate you and all that type of stuff. Do you care what people think about you as a pundit now? It's a changed profession. Do you have any care at all? No, it's got to a point now where... I mean, I get killed a lot, probably. It's a good thing, though. When you're getting killed, are you being talked about in any particular way? It means you're actually, you're in people's eyesight. Well, there's the United Flags that travelled with us everywhere, like home and abroad.

1:02:20Gary Neville: Hated, adored, but never ignored. And there is an element of you're either going to be hated or adored, but if you're ignored, it's the worst. Yeah, yeah. So that's the one. I genuinely think that I saw Cara somewhere when I go at Cara at Everton. Yeah, I see that, yeah. You see that? Yeah. It's happening a lot. some of them got roy obviously at arsenal like a year and a half ago so it's happening quite a lot now at grounds where the fans are sort of like starting to get a little bit but i've never had it at a football ground i've had abuse but i've never had it where that's coming to come up to it no i've never had a city fan at brighton away on the last day of the season when they won the league four or five years ago throw a beer over me um but i reckon if gary neville ran through a group of City fans, I reckon I probably, I remember walking out and thinking, oh my God, and I saw them, and I was expecting a beer to be honest.

1:03:14Gary Neville: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? They threw a beer over me. Oh, that time. Yeah, it's on camera, it's on YouTube, you can find it, it's a video, they videoed it. I ran through a load of City fans to get up to the sort of compound at Brighton, you're behind the goal where you walk up them steps, and the City fans, it's the way end, and they'd won the league. So I think I was quite lucky to get away with just a beer being thrown at me, you know what I mean? I was expecting probably a bit worse than that, you know what I mean? So I think there's an element of, yeah, it genuinely has no impact on me whatsoever.

1:03:44Gary Neville: It did do when I was younger, when I was a player, like 23, 24, 25, and I went through a bad time. And I remember sort of at the time thinking, you know, it really got to me pre-2000 euros. But beyond that, I've been pretty good. Even Valencia, to be fair, that was a horrendous amount of criticism I deserved. So, you know, there are a lot of times where I've got criticism and I just think yeah I think I've probably had that during my life really during my career me and my brother every time we went away to an away ground if the Nevels can play for England so can I we were mocked you know jokes about yeah it's mad so can I

1:04:25I spoke to a few United fans before you arrived I'm just talking about I'm doing Nevel and sometimes I throw like listen give me a few questions or whatever quite a few of them were saying to me asking why he shows we think less passion and positivity about us now as a pundit yeah

1:04:43Gary Neville: it's a balance though Rio isn't it it's like on Sunday Turkey scores you're covering the biggest game in the country it's an unbelievable goal I've got to make sure that I generate some form of what people you know I've got to generate some form do I want City to win the league I absolutely don't want City anywhere near the league title I'll say it on air now I don't want Liverpool or City to ever win a game of football again I genuinely don't I genuinely don't but do you know something to be a professional and sort of do the very best and sometimes maybe I don't get the balance right with United United are the hardest games I do to get the balance right now if you remember who scores the goals at Kunyur or Mbermo on the counter attack against Manchester City in Cara's first game Michael's first game oh my god Bruno plays it through.

1:05:33Gary Neville: Is it Umbermo? Is it Cunha? It's Umbermo. It's Umbermo. Rio, I've screamed on the camera. Listen to the goal. Play it back. I scream. You can hear me in the background. That's my microphone down. I'm literally, my veins are popping out my neck. And the amount of complaints that came in about that were unbelievable. Oh, is it? Yeah, massive. The thing that might, to be fair, people might think is that I'm more critical of United when they don't play well. Sometimes, I think over the last maybe 10 years, the balance, maybe I've not got it right. Sometimes I think it's maybe unjust. Sometimes you're not just saying what you see.

1:06:14Gary Neville: Well, last week I got, I think the guy who basically I speak to sometimes about my social media, particularly my LinkedIn stuff, he said to me, you've got a load of criticism from United fans after the Leeds game. and I went yeah but we played really badly I said we were shocking I said but if you go and watch the commentary of the City and Arsenal games in you know Michael's first two matches I was like that's an unbelievable performance you know what I mean so I don't know like I say United's definitely the hardest games for me to do to get the balance right because there's a lot of criticism comes my way if I over egg the enthusiasm and there's a lot of criticism comes my way from United fans if I sort of get it a little bit like if they feel I'm not sort of getting that sort of sentiment right but if you said to me don't cover United games for Sky let me just sit in the stand and watch them I'd say yeah all day long but I still do the games yeah it's difficult alright listen we've had you long enough we're going to finish with one thing we do with all of our guests and we need them to create a five-a-side team with the best players that they played with no goalkeepers because we don't really goalkeepers aren't no goalkeepers they're not real footballers are they oh Cristiano Ronaldo Wayne Rooney, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs.

1:07:31Ryan Giggs. Can you just elaborate a little bit on a couple of those players? Ryan Giggs, what was so great about Ryan Giggs?

1:07:39Gary Neville: Ryan Giggs from the age of 16 to the age of 40 has played at a level that like there, like up there for like, how many years is that? 23 years, 24 years. His games for Manchester United, his trophies for Manchester United, his longevity, his fitness, his adaptation to being a lively winger, to becoming a centre forward, to being a number 10, to being a sitting midfield player. Dictating. Dictating play. If you think of sort of like Bernardo Silva on Sunday for City, it might, Giggs, he could be like that, you know, a little bit. We weren't that type of team that, you know, you'd go back and get it off the back four, but he's that type of influence at the end, wasn't he?

1:08:23Gary Neville: Unbelievable. in that career and yeah Could you argue he's the best Premier League player ever do you reckon? Definitely up there in the top three top five Premier League players ever 100 % Go on Scolese Scolese I love Scolese playing with Scolese Unless you've played I think there are a lot of people who don't get the sort of love or the admiration the importance of Paul Scolese particularly in that last six or seven years when you played with him, very different than in the first six or seven years when I played with him, but that last six or seven years from probably 2005, 2006 through to 2012, he ran the biggest football matches in the country and in Europe in midfield.

1:09:10Gary Neville: He was Xavi, he was Pirlo. There are very few players I've seen dictate the pace and the rhythm of a football match. And I think unless you've played with someone like that or understand how that works. And Rio, do you want to talk about courage of getting on the ball in the most difficult games? If you're going to the Bernabéu or the Nou Camp and the old Trafford games against massive teams, you're a bit edgy, aren't you? But then you have a player who sometimes just give it here. You know, you lot spread out, by the way. Stop shrinking. We all want people to come closer so we can give it to them.

1:09:44He's going, go away so I can take risky passes. And he wants that.

1:09:47Gary Neville: So he used to say to me, he'd snap at me. literally three or four times a game if I didn't split because he knew then that that would pull their wide midfield players out which would get spaces and open pathways into him and unless you've played with that and then the ability to switch play add a different sort of what would be pace and interjection of sort of like pass into a game the route the one around the corner the accepting it on the half turn and deep and just honestly I think that he is uh the best player the most important player that I played with at United in the last 6, 7, 8 years was it?

1:10:24Gary Neville: yeah I just think he ran the whole team and then Michael Carrick alongside him was brilliant as well in that period the balance well what about Roy? Roy the highest standards and biggest influence I've ever seen in a football team in terms of influence on the pitch influence off the pitch the standards the demands the intensity the yeah I've never seen anybody as influential on a football pitch as him did you have any rides of him? trying to think if you know yeah once in Coventry way but it was before UK yeah I took an extra touch on the cross I should have put in earlier I've spoken to him about it a lot but I've never seen anybody as compelling driven intense set the standards everybody else sort of you think about sort of like Like the hardest working, one of the best players, the first in the gym, the hardest working in the gym, which means that everybody else then follows behind it and it sets that example of standards and intensity and non-stop, never giving in.

1:11:32Gary Neville: He had all that. I've never seen anybody with that level of influence. And is there anything about Cristiano that you saw or he was a part of that you go, I've not given that to anyone I've spoken about or that was like super special? I have said this before, but I always remember Cristiano being a young player, but actually being, when I look back now, quite mature. I remember Carlos giving us loads of runs after training and Cristiano going up to Carlos and saying, Carlos, too much water kills the plant. It made me stop in my tracks at the time and think, Gary, you do fight for everything. You're like, literally.

1:12:14Gary Neville: and I thought that was a good message to me. You know what I mean? We send it to Carlos. But Cristiano from 2006 to 2009, I watched United since 1979. I have never seen a player play football like that. I know people say George Best and Duncan Edwards when I talk like this, but I never saw George Best and Duncan Edwards play. I've never seen a player for three years play football like that with a red shirt on. I've never seen it. That three years from 2006 to 2009, you know, how many European Cups did we get to? 2008, 2009, three European Cups, multiple titles, the most successful period in Manchester United's history is that five year period from six to 11.

1:12:56Gary Neville: And he's there for four or five years of that. And I've never seen a player play at that level in a red shirt for three years. It was absolutely mesmerising. And then when you throw Rooney and Tevez into the mix with it and gigs, honestly, it's, when you watch, it is not a myth. Sometimes you say, in my day it was better. Actually, I can talk from a point of view of I didn't play in that team for that season in 2008. If you go and watch the clips of those three and Gink's and Scholes and you watch the speed of attacks, and obviously they didn't get the numbers of these sort of pairs, but I think of Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo at Real Madrid, and I think of Messi, Neymar, Suarez, those three that you think they could be the best three players in the world all in the same team.

1:13:41Gary Neville: there's a bit of that about Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo in that sort of 2007, 2008 season like what we were watching we were watching something that's like probably never going to happen again but I just think that was unbelievable that what I saw for those two or three years and Cristiano in that time no I've never seen anything like that and then Wazza he's the best Wazza Wazza's the best centre forward so people say to me who's the best striker I might say Ruud Van Asteroy Alan Shear if you say who is the best forward that I played with at United is Wayne Rooney. The best tackler, the best header, the best goal scorer, the best assist maker.

1:14:18Gary Neville: Runner. The best fighter, the best runner, the best... He was aggressive. He played football like he was in the streets still as a kid. He was the best forward I ever saw at Manchester United as I played. I'd never seen anybody who could do all this. He was a mixture of Mark Hughes, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cantona, Eric Cantona, Paul Scholes in the pocket and on the half turn he was a mixture of all those players pulled together Dwight York he was a mixture of all the best of those players that were amazing he could do all of the things that they could do he could drop in to their level he could pass he could find a pass he could finish he could head left foot right foot he could sprint back and defend honestly he's the best forward I've ever seen at Old Trafford in my time It's mad as well Because when he first signed He was a lunatic Off the pitch It's mad though He had it all together On the pitch But off the pitch It was all over the place But he comes from A part of the world That like When I speak to Cara And you speak to Waza And they come from that You know Liverpool The spirit of that Sort of community That they've grown up in And I I didn't experience that I grew up in a great community I loved it to bits But I think everything In their childhood Or everything in Waza's childhood Was a fight he's fighting probably with his brother his dad his uncle his best mate and then probably going for a drink with him and then playing football everything's probably a massive scrap to get everywhere I can imagine him sort of like getting up in the morning like you're just you're fucking ripping his fucking hairy chest at 10 yeah hairy chest fucking ripping his sheets and let me out you know what I mean you can imagine everything being like that for Wazek can't you know what I mean it's like and he had that with him I remember 2004 in the European championships day of the quarter final against Portugal and he absolutely he's playing head tennis out on the tennis court and it's 30 degrees what the fuck are you doing I'm bored I'm bored I can't wait for tonight and I'm there like I'm nervous I'm playing Figo and Ronaldo and he's there like can't wait for it and that's the mentality of someone that you just I can't put myself in that place in that in that mindset no it's different we're all different well listen guys I really appreciate it lovely to see you Thank you very much.

1:16:36Always nice to speak to you, Charles. Well done.

1:16:49Gary Neville: The 2026 FIFA World Cup meal at McDonald's is underway with one of nine legendary cups in the line-up. Christian Pulisic, David Beckham, Laminio Mal, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, son young men alfonso davies santi jimenez and between the posts it's grimace get one of nine collectible cups with a fifa world cup meal at participating mcdonald's for a limited time while supplies last all rights reserved 2026 mcdonald's at fifa world cup 2026