Neville just fearless on the screen

GARY NEVILLE is an excellent pundit. A man of opinions who is prepared to air them, is comfortable with the technology used in modern TV sport analysis — and he makes good sense both as a co-commentator or studio analyst.

He also has a trophy cupboard laden with medals to back up his credibility.

I told my pundits the basic principle was that I’d watched a thousand games and they’d played a thousand. I wanted them to use that experience to tell viewers something.

I asked them to be objective and fair, whichever club or player they were talking about. There was always room for constructive criticism.

My final bit of advice was ‘every ball didn’t have to be hit for six.’

In my time, certain key players of Liverpool’s successful teams of the 1970s and ‘80s were coming to the end of their careers and were natural TV choices given their experience and their profile. I didn’t see it as a major issue.

At the BBC we had for counterbalance the late great Jimmy Hill, who was definitely his own man, Terry Venables and a gentleman called Gary Lineker.

A couple of key things have changed in recent years. The sheer amount of air time studio pundits are expected to fill and, in some cases, the owners of clubs becoming stories in themselves.

I also think some pundits work across too many channels and are on screen too often.

There is only so much to be said about any incident.