That was a surprising response
Gary Neville has revealed the Premier League club he would have signed for if he had left Manchester United.
During his 19-year career, the right-back was known as a one-club man, playing for the side he grew up supporting as a child.
He made 602 appearances for the Red Devils, winning eight Premier League titles and the Champions League twice.
During the latest episode of Sky Bet’s Overlap, co-host Jamie Carragher asked Neville which club he would have signed for had he ever left United.
He said: “I’m going to say Arsenal. Arsenal were the club that I generally had massive respect for.”
He went on to explain that the Gunners seemed like a club of ‘tradition’.
He said: “When I went to Highbury and you used to walk in that old entrance with the marble hall, I used to think it’s a club of proper tradition.
“I used to love the blazers that you used to wear and there is a resemblance in alignment for what United were at that time with the blazers and tradition.”
Carragher, who also was a one-club man – Liverpool – decided to answer the question himself and it would appear the pair were always destined to be bitter rivals as he highlighted Tottenham as the team he would have played for.
The ex-defender said: “I’m going to go for Tottenham and the reason I say Tottenham is because when I was a kid they were the first team I was aware of besides Everton and Liverpool.
“My first season watching football was 1984-85 and Everton and Tottenham were going for the league.”
He continued: “I always remember even as a kid, I was only seven or eight, it was ‘how have Tottenham got on?’. That was the first thing in the back of my mind.”
However, former Gunner, Ian Wright found it difficult to choose a side when the question was put to him as he explained: “If you’re saying I had to be forced because my brother was a massive Liverpool fan, I had an uncle that was a massive United fan.”
Carragher asked him about the approach that Liverpool made for him to which he replied: “Yeah, there were murmurs of Liverpool with Kenny [Dalglish] and there were murmurs after 90’ with Man United.
“Just to have that link was always nice but it’s a tough one. Playing against that United side and they’d won so much, I was jealous of them.”
The trio also spoke about the role of agents on the episode of the podcast which was released earlier today.
