ROY KEANE'S FIRST IMPRESSION OF GARY NEVILLE EXPLAINS WHY HE HIT OUT AT HIM ON LIVE TV

Roy Keane knew immediately that Gary Neville was a special talent at Manchester United - which explains why he recently hit out at him for putting himself down.

Neville is rightly considered one of the top right-backs in Premier League history due to his 19-year stint with United, during which he won eight league titles and two Champions Leagues. Yet the Sky Sports analyst remains excessively humble, often making self-deprecating jokes about his career on TV and podcasts.

That saw him receiving a scolding from his former captain Keane during ITV's broadcast of England's 2-1 victory against Slovakia at Euro 2024. Praising the current England players, Neville jokingly downplayed his own brilliance by saying: "You know this isn't a team of Nevilles."

Keane interrupted with: "Why are you putting yourself down?" prompting Ian Wright to chime in with: "Yeah, we've told you about that".

Neville's standing as one of the great defenders in English history was recently affirmed by Keane. Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Neville revealed he suffered from imposter syndrome when he first entered the United first-team dressing room surrounded by his idols.

The 49-year-old said: "Honestly, I used to go in there and get changed. I remember that I used to walk back into my own dressing room after I'd got changed. It was massively overwhelming, in terms of the presence of the people in the dressing room.

"I've got goosebumps of me being in there and it scares me to death. In the youth team and reserves, I was the captain, so I'd get changed and go back into the youth team dressing room. [David] Beckham would be in there, Phil [Neville] would be in there I felt like I didn't belong [in the first team dressing room]."

But Keane had to remind Neville of his own ability, recalling how he knew the former England international had enough quality to become a first-team regular from the very start.

The Irishman explained: "Players come across sometimes and train with the first team, and you just know that they'll be gone [and won't come back]. But when Gary and them lot [Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, and Ryan Giggs] came across, they were brilliant players, and we knew that they could take it [the stick].

"The credit I would give those lads that came across is that I knew they were here to stay. You're talking about four or five players, [Ryan] Giggs was already ahead of the group, but I knew that they were here to stay. I can only talk about my own experiences but when the players came across, they were no doubt talented because they were at Manchester United, but they had great habits and traits."

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2024-07-05T10:05:43Z dg43tfdfdgfd