Chapter 1: What insights does Gary Neville share about Manchester United's transfer experiences?
Ian and Gary, are you ready for another of our off-scripts? I think so, yeah. I don't know what the topic is. Good. That's why it's called off-script. It's not only off-script, it's off the cuff as well. I've got to say, your hair's looking nice. Who attacked that?
I was sat at home last night thinking it's too long and thinking I'm going to get a haircut for the next few weeks, so I let the kids do it.
Yeah, I might have to get the golden shears out for Michael, but there you go. Now, I want to talk to you about something, despite all your years in football, something that you personally have never experienced. A goal? No, you've scored a transfer because you're a one club man. But even though you've never experienced it, you experienced players coming into your club
players leaving your club, will it create the whole thing? So let's start with you first of all. Was there ever a point or was there ever a conversation where another club came in for you that you were aware of?
None that I've ever been made aware of and none that I ever know of. And I would imagine probably Sir Alex in his post Manchester United career or in his interviews when I left the club would have said that somebody would have come in for me or something like that. It would have come out. So, no, I'm unaware of any interest that's ever been shown in me.
Was there ever a point, now obviously, you know, the club you supported as a boy and also a hugely successful club, but was there ever a point where you thought, this is great, but I'd like to experience something else different in life as a player?
Never for one second did I ever take the blinkers off. I could never understand that, for instance, just before David Beckham left, I knew probably a few months before that there was probably something brewing. I couldn't get my head around it at the time, being so Manchester United, how any player that was at the club would ever think to want to leave. I just couldn't compute it at all.
And for myself, it never once entered my head. I mean, my contract negotiations, The longest was probably three meetings. That was maybe when Peter Kenyon was the CEO. They were normally done inside one meeting or two meetings maximum. They were always long contracts.
I think I signed a four year contract when I was 18, a five year contract when I was 19 or 20, a seven year contract when I was 22, a six year contract when I was 26, And a five-year contract when I was 29. And then one-year contracts from 34 up to 36. I literally was always in contract.
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Chapter 2: How did Sir Alex Ferguson's transfer policy shape the club's success?
They were lip-reading him, if you remember. I think his words were, I think they want to sell me. And at the time, Madrid and Barcelona were in for him. And I, at the time, said to him, just sign the contract, stay at the club. I think he wanted to go. Part of him wanted to go and experience Barcelona and Real Madrid, or one of them. He always saw himself beyond, I think, Manchester.
As much as he loved United, his family were... I mean, his mum and dad still watch United every week now, nearly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And absolutely obsessed with the club. I always felt that he had an incredible vision about what he wanted to do with his life. And I remember... Obviously, about 10 days ago, two weeks ago, I was in Miami and was covering his first game, or supposedly was going to be covering his first game for his new club in Miami.
And I remember being asked a question whilst I was out there, at the age of obviously 45 now, and thinking, you know, what I thought at the age, you know, mid-20s when David left Manchester United, I couldn't understand it.
But then when I saw the furore around his first game in Miami, I think that he's played at Real Madrid, he's played at AC Milan, he's played at Paris Saint-Germain, he's played in LA, he's now got a club in Miami. His wealth of experience and his experiences that he's had in his life are just out of this world.
And obviously, if he'd have stayed at Manchester United, he would never have experienced them. So is he richer in his experiences for what he did and for the decision, the bold decision that he made? He definitely is. And I couldn't understand it at the time.
That's 20 years on. But at the time, you say you couldn't understand it. Even though you remain incredibly close as friends, did it cause friction in the friendship?
No, not at all. There was never friction in terms of him leaving. I never felt that at all because I always knew that when he left, I thought it was probably for the best anyway because the relationship was getting a little bit fraught. In the sense that... With the club? No, just generally. You could see that it was coming to an end.
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Chapter 3: What was Gary Neville's perspective on players leaving Manchester United?
And Phil wants to go and play football every single week. David Moyes, I think, had been very keen to sign him at Everton and shown a lot of interest. I think Bill Kemwright had as well, which is a big influence, I think, on my brother and my dad. And I think ultimately it was the decision was made, but I do remember all three instances like it was yesterday.
And I don't remember a lot of my football matches, but I remember those three leaving and the detail around it. And, you know, first time I'd ever been to the boss's house. I remember Nicky getting on the plane and leaving us in America. I remember David and the time around him leaving.
So it was, there were big wrench moments in the sense that it was obviously a strong bond that we had, but it was, it was probably the three of the biggest disappointments that I probably had in
United when you saw that and even when Roy left and you know obviously we've become so close with Roy and when I'm trying to think when other players left where it was a big moment where you thought Dennis Irwin leaving and people like that you thought there were blows those because there were people who you've been sort of on the pitch within the dressing room where you've lived through so much in the trenches they were like we were all like so close with each other there were big moments
What about Cristiano when he went? I think because we'd had... He did the interview after the 2008 final where he sort of alluded to the fact that he was going. And it was almost like, you know, you had an advance warning. So you're almost ready, prepared for it. You knew he was leaving the year after.
Oh, there's always the question. It's for weeks and weeks and weeks in the media. We're forever asking. So you're prepared for it. It's not like it's a shock, is it?
No, that one, I mean, even the David one was coming. I think the Cristiano one was coming. It was obvious that one day we're going to want to go and experience Madrid and La Liga. I think some of them are obvious. Some of them, to be fair, catch you by surprise. So the Yapstam one caught everybody by surprise. I always remember the Mark Hughes one for me. Shocked me.
Maybe it didn't shock the older players in the dressing room. I was a younger player at the time. But Paul Hinton, Mark Hughes leaving was a big shock to me at the time where they left. The others, not so much a shock because you saw them coming internally, you saw what was happening, you felt them coming.
But no, I think that one, Cristiano was one that you knew was coming and you were pre-warned on.
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Chapter 4: How did David Beckham's departure impact the team dynamics?
He had that stubbornness about him. he was getting close to the line that I'd seen players get to before and obviously they didn't survive that line. And I think that when Wayne did that, I thought that was the end for him. I thought that would be it, that the manager would sort of manage him out of the club over the next few months.
And then obviously there was a new contract announced and, you know, we were all delighted from a point of view of playing because he was popular. I mean, Wayne... And what I would say is that, you know, Wayne was so popular in the dressing room, it was untrue. The players absolutely loved him. The England players loved him when I was a coach, when I was a player.
The Manchester United players loved him. There's no one didn't like Wayne Rooney. So I think they forgave him for what would be his reasons for doing it because they liked him so much and he built up so much credit with us. And to be fair, you've got to understand that one of the things that I think we had in the dressing room over a 20-year period was tolerance. tolerance of each other.
We were all different. We were all from different countries. We were all from different parts of the world. We were all different ages. We all had different characters and some players, you know, Paul Scholes, for instance, never turned up for a game once. I remember. People would suggest that's the ultimate breach of loyalty.
Yet, it wasn't even thought about in the dressing room that Paul Scholes should be kicked out of the club, for instance. So, it actually informs my punditry a little bit. So, when Luis Suarez bit Ivanovic playing for Liverpool and there was a large cry for him to be booted out of the Premier League and there was a large cry for him to be booted out of English football...
I stay clear of that stance because I've been in a dressing room where I've sat around 20 people that you're looking in the eye every single week. And every single one of those 20 lads has got a good part of them. They've got a good soul in there somewhere. and they all make a mistake.
So if you think about the 20 people that you know best in your life when you were 19 to 25 or 18 to 25, you'll know one of them or two of them will have basically gone down the wrong road and will have chosen the wrong decision and will have made a mistake and will have got on the wrong side of the law or will have done something wrong. At that point,
you need your teammates to stand alongside you and support you.
So, obviously, when Wayne did what he did or when Paul did what he did or when any player stepped out of line, you know, I did it myself a couple of times, you know, behind the scenes, ultimately, you want your 20 people in that dressing room to rally behind you and tolerate what you've done and accept that you can apologise, you can make mistakes. So,
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Chapter 5: What factors influenced players' decisions to stay or leave Manchester United?
John Stones was very sought after.
Yeah, John Stones. And I think that if you look at the emerging talent that he's brought from abroad, like De Bruyne, players that wouldn't be... Mahrez. Laporte, Laporte, Mahrez. I think he's not going for what would be the Mbappes, the sort of Neymars, the... the players that are at that level.
I think Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain will always be the clubs that will do those mega transfers that shock the world. I think that, to be fair, Sir Alex Ferguson wanted transfers that were fit into the three categories. Youth, best Premier League players or emerging players from the Premier League and overseas.
What would you say defined his policy on selling of players?
when either they weren't good enough or he felt as though they were questioning his control.
Was he ruthless on that?
Yeah. Yeah. I think if he felt as though a player was... getting to beyond the point that he couldn't manage him anymore. He was getting difficult. And I think he always talks about, I mean, you look at all his interviews, he talks about control, authority, having the discipline.
And I think there were times where he thought, right, okay, that player isn't quite good enough anymore or that player is on his course. You know, with me, got to the end and, you know, it was obvious to everybody that I had to basically leave. And I think ultimately he would let you leave the club.
You would leave the club if you weren't fitting into his plans anymore from a football point of view. Or I think if he felt that come to a point whereby he needed to go.
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Chapter 6: How did Gary Neville feel about his own loyalty to Manchester United?
They were beasts. And you saw this young lad come in thinking, there's no way that he could compete in this. And he was absolutely fantastic. His technical ability was unbelievable. I really don't want to go down the route, to be honest with you, of a player that sort of came in and thought... Don't have to name them.
Don't have to name them.
No, I wouldn't name them, because I actually think there was probably only a few times that you thought, oh, he's going to struggle. And then they ended up, did struggle, because there's obviously players who struggle.
I always like, as you can imagine from the interviews I've done over the years, I wish I could have been there to witness it personally. because so many times I've heard players talk about going to a new club. Again, you haven't experienced this, but you've been around it. They say it's like going to school. It's a new group of people. You're going out for the first time.
You're training for the first time. And then for whatever reason, and they're not necessarily friendly with all the lads. They may know one or two, but they're not part of that group, either professionally or socially as yet. And if it's the first shooting session or whatever the drill is, a slight mistouch, you know someone's going to be going, how much? More as an icebreaker than anything else.
You must remember those.
I do remember some of those little things. What I would say is about United, I mean, obviously the manager built such a spirit that when the players came in, one, I think they... they settled in really quickly. Because if it was in pre-season, we'd always go on pre-season tour together and we'd get one night out And that night out was special.
For me, there were three special moments in the year at United. And the things actually I missed most was the night out in pre-season where the squad was coming together. The night out at Christmas where we all went out and had the most incredible time. It was almost like a sanctioned drink, which, to be fair, was rare during the season.
And then when we won a trophy at the end of the season, straight after it, the party that we'd have. And there were three special moments, actually, because in those moments...
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Chapter 7: What differences exist between transfer strategies at Manchester United and Salford City?
It can happen.
The biggest example I can think of a player who went on to be a great player But it just did not work at Manchester United. It was Diego Forlan. I mean, Diego Forlan went on to score... Hatfuls. Hatfuls of goals at Atletico Madrid and be a brilliant player in La Liga. But he never scored for 30 games at United. And obviously he scored some really important goals in the second season.
But it was obvious that he was a really good player. But sometimes just a league doesn't suit him or maybe some environment or the timing. And it happens. But he was an example of a player who was a brilliant lad. really talented player, but just needed to play at a different club, in a different league, in a different environment to be able to excel. That's the way it stands out.
Why didn't it happen for Varane? Do you know one Sebastian Varane? He was an amazing player, one Sebastian Varane. The reason it didn't happen for one Sebastian Varane, in my opinion, was that we had the best midfield I think English football has ever produced, and I think will ever produce.
So you had Becks, Keane, Scholes, Giggs.
I honestly think those four players are four of the greatest players that Manchester United have ever had. You've got the two top appearance makers in that midfield. You've got a global megastar, an amazing player in David Beckham. And you've got Roy Keane, who's the most inspirational football player that I've ever seen. You had a midfield four that were on another planet.
And what the manager was trying to do was see life beyond, obviously, that midfield four and try to add strength and depth and try to...
marry that midfield four with Juan Sebastian Varane so if you remember at the time what happened Scholes he got moved forward one or Scholes he got moved to the left if Giggs he was injured and Juan Sebastian Varane would play in midfield and so that disrupted the quarter and Which, you know, the intent was there to obviously try and move the squad forward. That's the problem, I think.
I think Cara's spoken about it with Liverpool, with Mane, Salah and Firmino. If you go and sign a top player to come into that front three, one of them has to sit out. All of a sudden, you've got an unhappy player on your bench and it disrupts it. And when you've got such a set three like that, like we had such a set four... It just became really difficult in terms of that.
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Chapter 8: Which clubs did Gary Neville admire and consider during his career?
I mean, I always remember the old adage, or the apocryphal story, whether it goes back to Sir Alex or not, I'm not entirely sure, but you often hear people say, strengthen when you're strong, not when you're weak. And that's a really difficult thing to do, because that goes against the other adage, which is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Yeah. The strategies of Manchester United versus Salford are absolutely chalk and cheese. There is nothing aligned whatsoever. There's no similarities. other than obviously we want to try and sign the best players, but that's every club. Every club wants to try and sign the best players.
So, for instance, in terms of Manchester United's strategy, I used to liken it to a conveyor belt, a very slow conveyor belt, that basically had 23 players on, 24 players on. And one or two would come in at this end, and one or two would go out at that end.
was never a case that it was like eight players in eight players out it was never this massive interchange you know adaptation of the squad so Manchester United was a very controlled conveyor belt with probably six or seven young players six or seven players or ten players in the middle and then three or four players at the end 30 to 34 and And then as the 34-year-old became 36, they'd come off.
The 29-year-olds would become 31. The 18-year-olds became 20. And then some new ones would come in. And obviously the manager might disperse it. And that was the strategy I felt that existed at Manchester United. It's almost like the perfect strategy. You create success and then you adapt slowly and change slowly. You've got stability.
You're bringing one or two players into a very settled environment that know the pattern of play. And that's where you get a real sort of what would be a period of domination or a period where a club can be successful for a longer period. Look at Barcelona with Pique, Puyol, Busquets, Xavi and Ester.
Messi, you've got the core, Valdez, for five, six, seven years and then you bring one or two in to add to that. So every club that's had a dynasty or they've had this stability of players in it and Salford is completely the opposite. So to get from the eighth tier of English football, which is where we started, to the fourth tier of English football as quickly as we possibly could.
We had to basically work in what would be an 18-month, 24-month cycle, but we knew every 18 months to 24 months that the players that were good enough to get us out of eight and seven
would not be able to... Yeah, different competition.
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