NEVILLE KNOWS THE ‘TORTURE’ OF MISSING OUT

PHIL NEVILLE suffered World Cup heartbreak three times – but remembers one occasion as “torture”.

The former Manchester United defender missed out in 1998, 2002 and 2006 and, on the latter two occasions, was out shopping when Sven Goran Eriksson made the phone call to break the bad news.

But the reason not going to France 20 years ago was the most crushing of those blows was he had hopes of making the starting line-up and was with the squad for a pre-World Cup training camp in La Manga when Glenn Hoddle axed him.

Neville (right), now manager of the England women’s team, said: “France ’98 was the worst one – even though I’ve never been back to Debenhams.

“I missed out on three World Cups, the first one in ’98 I was in La Manga, the next two I was stood in Debenhams both times and I got a call off Sven Goran Eriksson to tell me I hadn’t made the World Cup squads, so I missed out on three.

“It was actually a good excuse to go home and get out of the Trafford Centre. No, honestly, it’s unbelievable how fate... it was the end of the season and I was in the same department store both times.

“It’s 100 per cent easier if you’re told when you’re at home. I flew home from La Manga with six other players having been told they were left out of the squad, was picked up at Birmingham airport by my wife and my father, drove home and it felt like it was torture.

“The other managers learnt from that and Gareth was part of a lot of England squads so he has first-hand experience of how to do it.

“It felt easier, Sven ringing you. Sven was a nice guy, ‘Hello, you’re not in the squad, bad news, goodbye’. It felt a little bit easier than sitting in a room with Glenn, one-to-one, after I thought I should have gone.”

Neville, whose England side play Wales on April 6 at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium, believes former team-mate Southgate will deal well with such issues because of his own experiences.

Neville added: “I think he’s handled every situation unbelievably so far and I think he’ll do no different. He was like that as a player, I think he was brave as a player.

“I’ve managed to be lucky enough to work closely with him and seen him work over the last eight weeks and he’s an impressive man, he’s an impressive manager.

“You look at it from afar and everyone looks happy. Everyone looks buzzing, happy, they look smiley, it looks like there’s a good team spirit and that’s testament to the work he’s doing.”