Neville: 20 years at the top

n part two of Gary Neville's interview with MUTV, he looks back with pride at how his Old Trafford career panned out...

When you joined United, the club you'd always supported, could you have imagined playing 600 games here?
No. When I joined the club I would genuinely have been happy with ten games for United. If you’d said to me then that I’d play 600 games, I'd have said, ‘absolutely no chance’. I don’t think many people at the club would have said it when I first joined. I’d been a centre of excellence kid since I was 11 and saw the talent of the players like Ben Thornley, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, my brother, Chris Casper, Keith Gillespie – these were incredibly talented people. I looked around me and thought, ‘I’m not sure I’m as good as some of these lads’. I knew I wasn’t. But we got swept along together. We all believed in it, we were all passionate about playing for United, we all desperately wanted to do it and we listened to the coaches.

We had great coaches in Eric Harrison, Nobby Stiles and Brian Kidd. We’re forever in their debt. They guided us and we just went off and did what they told us to do. We believed in the principles they instilled in us. Then ultimately the manager, who had come down six or seven years before, had a mission to bring young players through. He gave us the opportunity. You could never imagine all those things were going to come together at once and your would evolve. But it does, and when you’re in it you think it’s going to go on forever. You love it, it’s brilliant, you have your ups and downs, but it’s just a great time and the experience I’ve had has been unbelievable

The best of that is probably the relationship with people I’ve had here, the great friendships I have just going into work every day. A lot of people work in this country and don’t enjoy their jobs; I’m lucky that I’ve absolutely adored everything I’ve done for 20 years. I’m just fortunate and privileged to have been in that position.

Were you aware that the 'Class of 92' was a special group of players?
Not when we were 16 or 17. When we got to 18, there were a couple of indications. Bryan Robson did an article publicly saying he’d be amazed if we didn’t become top players. Then the boss gave us our debuts and put us in with the first team, travelling on European away trips to get experience with them. Eric Harrison said to us that we had a chance and you get confidence from that. The ultimate confidence comes when you start training with the first team and you understand you can compete at that level because you keep going past those hurdles. But when you first come into the youth team at 17, you’ve no idea about that. When we got to 18 and there were 1,500 people watching us on Saturday morning in the ‘A’team and the first-team were staying behind to watch, you thought, ‘there must be something right here’. We were playing brilliant football at the time. If you amassed all the international caps, appearances and medals from that youth team… people talk about Robbie Savage, but he’s someone who should have great pride. That determination and passion irritates people at times, but it comes from that youth team that he is still playing football at the age of 35 or 36. Keith Gillespie is still playing too.

Is there an end of an era feeling about it?
I don’t know if it’s the end of an era feeling, you just think that a new era is beginning. There’s a layer below us now. When Denis [Irwin] and Roy [Keane] left, that felt like it was the end of an era at the time. Then me, Giggsy, Scholesy, and Edwin stepped up to that next layer. Now, below us, there’s Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, John O’Shea, Wayne Rooney – they will step up. The conveyor belt doesn’t have a gap. The manager has built a squad with various layers and tiers of experience, from young players at 17 to experienced players at 37. When the older ones step off the conveyor belt, others step up and they become the experienced players.

When Roy left you thought we’d never be able to replace that character and that player, but it just happens in different ways. You could never replace him like-for-like. But in different ways you compensate. It’ll happen again when Scholes and Giggs leave. Although, I really don’t know how you will replace those two! That would be difficult. They’re special, and the manager, too. But the club will go on, that’s happened right the way through our history. Other players will take responsibility and step up to the mantle, I’m convinced of that. They have to, because the club has to be successful.

What can you recall of your debut against Torpedo Moscow in 1992?
I remember it a little bit; I was only on for three minutes and hardly touched the ball. I think I took a throw-in. It was a special moment for me to make my debut, that’s probably my most special moment because to play at Old Trafford for Man.

United was always my dream. So to do that, even though it was only three minutes, you can never take that away from me. That was probably my greatest achievement because once you get there you never want to have it taken away from you. You have got to get that feeling, that adrenaline, that buzz that nothing else can give you.

Is there a highlight from all the silverware you’ve won?
The obvious one is to say the last few minutes in Barcelona to win the Treble. That goes without saying. You can never describe that feeling. You could never put it into words because it would never do that moment justice. That would have to be the high, but there were other unbelievable highs. We didn’t win the league for three years, then won it back in 2006/07. The nights of winning trophies, going out with the lads, those nights are the greatest of your life - you can’t replace them.

Players like Ryan Giggs have talked about the disappointments driving him on rather than his successes. Is that how you look at it?
The disappointments stand out more at times. Vasco da Gama in 2000, Maine Road in 2002, Leeds last year – disaster. Those moments do stand out and you remember how bad you felt. But they’re all part of the experience. You’re not going to have a career at Man. United without going through a certain level of disappointment. It’s just the way it is. Monaco, Dortmund, Leverkusen… all these moments. You could kick yourself forever. But the reality is that only one team can win each competition. The rollercoaster is part of the journey for 20 years – it’s like being married!