Neville: Youth Will Flourish If Given Opportunities

Gary Neville was one of six Manchester United legends to return to Old Trafford last Friday for the launch of adidas' Ninety-Two and take part in a Q&A session with Rachel Riley.

Seated alongside his former team-mates David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and brother Phil, Gary gave his thoughts on his Academy days, balancing United with England, and his favourite moment in a Red shirt...

How does it feel as a member of the Class of 92' to have your achievements recognised in a shoe?
It's good. You can sit here and say our time is over, but when you look at the guys in the current team – Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard – and the 80 years of consecutive games including youth team players, it's fantastic and it's important United continue to tell the story of youth, particularly in a time where it's more difficult to break into the first team, so I don’t think we should let the candle burn out. Ultimately we need to keep reminding people of the importance of producing young players and local players who’ve grown up loving the club. You can look what Tottenham are doing – you’ve got to respect it, or Southampton, and the other clubs that produce a lot of young players, because they connect with the fans. 

All of you in the Class of '92 graduated into the first team at slightly different times, what made United's Academy so special at that time?
I suppose when you look back – the Academy’s always been special for United. You look at the Busby Babes, and then you come into when we were growing up – Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes – these are some of the greatest players Manchester United have ever had. I always think of the blazer - in the youth team wearing that blazer - you think of the Busby Babes wearing that United blazer, and the first team now. And the staff, and that’s the history, principles, values that should never change. That’s why The Cliff [training ground] is so special. And what else was special were the coaches we had; we had Nobby Stiles and Brian Kidd, brilliant, brilliant coaches and players. They were United greats really, European Cup winners, World Cup winners – it was a privilege to be coached by them.

When you first joined the Academy, you were told there was a one per cent chance you would make it into the first team – but six of you managed it from the youth team – will it ever happen again?
I think this is the type of club that could do it, but it would be difficult. England have just won the Under-17s World Cup and I think when you win trophies at the youth stage it gives you confidence and belief, and with belief as a young person, nothing can stop you. You give a young person belief and confidence and they’ll do anything, they’re run through walls for you. This is the type of club that could do that, whether it’s three or four players it could happen again, but it’s difficult, there’s pressure on managers and owners to win the league or to stay in the league for the monetary values. The manager will maybe think: 'Can I cope with the mistakes a young lad will make, or do I go with the experienced lad, the safe option'. That’s where Sir Alex had courage, if you think about the players he got rid of to make way for us - they were some of the best players the club has ever had. But that’s where he had belief, and we had that belief. Like I say, I hope it happens, but it will be very difficult.

Angel Gomes has just won the World Cup with England Under-17s, does playing for United help you gain international recognition, and is it hard to balance representing both?
I think as soon as you play for United, with respect to England, you're normally going to play for England – something has gone wrong if you’re playing for United and not for England. I can't think of many English players at United who didn't go on to play for England, because there aren’t many English players at those top six clubs, which is a big problem. Obviously, I was with England [coaching] for four years and we were picking players that were on the bench with their clubs all the time, because they weren’t getting a chance, or getting in the team. But we were left with no other option, I think Gareth Southgate has alluded to it recently as well. To see young English teams winning is great, we were lucky to win with the England Under-18s when we were younger and that was really good for us. And when you look at these lads now, I hope they get the same opportunity we did, I hope there are owners and managers with the guts to put them in because they will do well. That’s a fact, they will do well. It's just whether they’ll get the chance.

What was your favourite memory of playing for United over the past 25 years?
It's got to be those 10 days leading up to the Treble. I do remember vivid little snippets that happened. I remember Tottenham scoring the goal like it was yesterday and thinking ‘oh no’. I remember the last few minutes, holding on, thinking ‘if we concede a goal here, we’ve lost the league’. But, the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal was the most special game I've ever played in, so I’ll bring that in as well. It was just incredible. The last ever semi-final replay and what a way to end it. A pitch invasion at the end, with the United fans on the pitch and winning it with a half decent goal from Giggsy!