Gary Neville has garnered a reputation as a straight-talking football analyst who tells it like it is.
After a trophy-laden playing career with Manchester United he now spends his time picking apart the faults of current players in his role as Sky Sports’ pundit-in-chief.
But he has now confirmed that he is just as critical about himself as he is the poor defenders he routinely savages from behind his Sky Pad.
At a Legends of Football event for the charity Nordoff Robbins on Wednesday night, Neville appeared on stage with his Sky banter buddy Jamie Carragher.
Carra had a clip of Neville looking a tad (a lot) off the pace in his final game for United against West Brom on New Year’s Day 2011.
(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
As frank as ever, Neville told the crowd: “I was shit at the end.”
The former England right-back has previously written about how he knew the end was nigh at half time during that game against the Baggies:
“The end came for me on New Year’s Day, 2011 – and it came on a toilet at The Hawthorns. It wasn’t the way I’d have chosen to finish, but I knew for certain that this was my last game,” he wrote in his autobiography.
“After 18 years at Manchester United, after 602 first-team appearances, I was in the middle of playing for my team for the last time.
“And I couldn’t wait for it to be over. In the dressing room, the manager was barking instructions about how we were going to improve on a dire first-half performance against West Brom.
“But I just wanted to get home, to disappear. In the sanctuary of the toilet, my mind was elsewhere.”
