Why Neville is the right man to lead England’s women...

IF Phil Neville could turn back time he no doubt would, though probably not to 2011. That’s when he posted the first of three tweets that had us briefly wondering yesterday if he might surpass Sam Allardyce as England’s shortest-serving football manager.

He had been hoping yesterday to produce some evidence that might have provided a bit of context to his tweet in July that year saying that he had ‘ just battered the wife’.

However, the decision to delete his own Twitter account before he had realised the sheer scale of his social media nightmare — in fairness he had pledged to Baroness Sue Campbell two weeks ago that he would come off Twitter the moment his appointment as the England women’s team manager was confirmed — rendered that particular task rather difficult.

Recognising that domestic violence is no laughing matter, Neville pressed ahead with a

PA Supportive: Phil Neville with his wife Julie at a charity event in Manchester