Old Trafford was no smile zone for me reveals Neville

 

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has suggested that “all the anger” left him when he retired as he “never smiled in 20 years” as a player.

The 46-year-old retired from professional football in 2011 after playing over 600 times for the Red Devils.

Neville won the Premier League eight times and he also lifted the Champions League twice.

After retiring, he had a brief spell as manager of Valencia. But most of Neville’s time since 2011 has been spent as a pundit for Sky Sports.

The Man Utd legend has built a great reputation as a pundit as he is one of the most respected football analysts around at the moment.

Neville has told SportBIBLE that he “never once saw football as a joy” as a player:

“All the anger left me. The second I left United, which was the second I finished my career, the anger left me, the tension left me,” Neville said.

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“If you think about me I never smiled on the football pitch, I never smiled in 20 years.

“I never once saw football as a joy. Then, when I left football, I could become me and get rid of that. I used to take it home with me at night and it used to ruin my week, as it did all of us.”

Earlier this month, Neville suggested that he struggles to “recognise” Man Utd players due to their “vanilla” posts on social media:

“There are characters inside the Manchester United dressing room that I greatly admire not just for their football abilities but their human qualities — vulnerabilities, resilience, sense of humour and all the things that make them distinct. I don’t recognise them at all when I see some of their social media posts.