Move to Liverpool, Leeds or City? No chance, says Nev
GARY Neville has revealed he would never have played for Liverpool, Leeds United or City - but would have gone to Arsenal.
Neville spent all his career at Old Trafford after breaking into the firstteam as a member of the Class of ‘92, captaining the side and winning plenty of trophies along the way.
The former right-back turned pundit made 598 appearances for United before retiring in 2011 and although he never left the club, he knew he would never have joined three of their fiercest rivals - but did admire one.
“I’d made the decision quite early in my 30s that if Sir Alex [Ferguson] had come and told me my time was up, I wouldn’t have played for anyone else. I was fortunate in that sense,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“However, if he’d come to me at say the age of 28, and told me my time was up, of course I would have played for another Premier League club.
“Who would I have played for? You can rule out three: I’d have never have played for City, Liverpool or Leeds. Not in a million years. I don’t feel anything bad towards the players who did that, but me personally, I couldn’t have done it. The rivalry is just too much.
“If you’d said to me, in a perfect world, in my years of playing, which clubs in the Premier League have the tradition, a proper club? Arsenal would be No 1. The tradition of Highbury, I felt they did things the right way. Also in the Premier League, I like Aston Villa and Newcastle.
“In Europe I admired Juventus and Bayern Munich. I respected them as football clubs. Bayern were meticulous in their preparation, so internationally, it would be them.”
Despite having respect for other teams, Neville never dreamed of leaving United on his own accord and couldn’t understand any player who ever wanted to.
“Never for one second did I ever want to take the blinkers off. Just before David Beckham left, I could feel for a few months that there was something brewing, I could never for one second understand or get my head around it at the time how any player at the club could ever think about leaving. I couldn’t compute it.
“For myself, it never once entered my head. My longest contract negotiation was three meetings; they were normally done inside one or two meetings, and they were always long contracts.
“I thought this week about players during the coronavirus, and how I really valued security in my contract. It came from my family, having my contract tied down was critical.”