He knew the end was near.
Gary Neville made 602 appearances for Manchester United, placing him fifth in the all-time record appearances for the famous club – behind legends such as Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton, Bill Foulkes and Paul Scholes.
He also belongs to an elite group of players who have captained United to a Premier League title, following on from Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, Eric Cantona and Roy Keane.
Towards the end of the 2009/2010 season, Neville featured in ten games on the trot and he was playing well. The pundit admitted that the reason for this was because he knew that he was going to retire at the end of the season.
Knowing that these were going to be his last moments in a United jersey elevated his performances to a level which even he wouldn’t have expected of himself at that stage of his career.
This form led to Alex Ferguson convincing the Bury-born full-back that he should play for one more season.
He did, but it didn’t work out.
Neville was recently interviewed alongside his brother, Phillip, and revealed how he knew his days were up during a game against Stoke City in the 2010/2011 season.
“When you got average players causing you a problem, you know you’re in trouble,” Neville said.
“Honestly, I’d gone by then, I retired there (when he was substituted against Stoke). Even though I played for another two months and played in another couple of games, I’d retired…in my mind I was gone.”
When he lined out for United in a New Year’s Day match against West Brom, it didn’t take much of the action to unfold for him to realise that he would never play for the club again.
“I knew after twenty minutes of that game I was playing my last game for United…”
The segment on Neville’s impending retirement is below and you can also watch the full hour long interview by here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wm4ijl5zEk
