Neville set for Sky return
Gary Neville is expected to return to Sky Sports as a football pundit next season.
The word within the england party in France is that their assistant coach will accept Sky’s open-ended invitation to come back after the team’s involvement in euro 2016 is over.
Neville left Sky last season after forging a reputation as the game’s best analyst to try his hand at management with valencia. But he had a nightmare, winning only 10 out of 28 games in a four-month spell before his inevitable sacking.
Neville has concentrated on his part-time role with england since then along with his varied business interests that include co-ownership of non-league Salford and Hotel Football next door to Old Trafford. Sky will welcome him back with open arms, having not directly replaced him since he left last December.
He would easily slip back into his role, especially alongside Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football, on which their dissection of the weekend’s Premier league games took football punditry to new heights. The main change is that Neville will be working with a new presenter in Dave Jones, with ed Chamberlin going to iTv.
Meanwhile, a Tv army is converging on lens for england v Wales. BBC Wales alone have 83 accredited personnel, with the english BBC operation having a similar number — and that was before the hooligan trouble added to the Tv presence. at yesterday’s Tv press conference questions from BBC News, BBC Sport and BBC Wales didn’t allow many others to get a word in, apart from Sky Sports News, who showed it live. WAYNE
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FA stopped having specific staff looking after the England WAGS at tournaments following the circus in Baden-Baden in 2006. But, fortunately in the wake of the hooligan concerns, the FA have set up a private website which the players’ families and friends can access to receive the latest information on all team matters — except the line-up.