Red: My Autobiography by Gary Neville

Author:Gary Neville [Neville, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biography, Usenet, Non-Fiction, C429, Kat, Exratorrents
ISBN: 9781446465196
Publisher: Bantam Press
Published: 2011-09-01T04:57:32+00:00

The influence and intensity of our boss has never dimmed for a nanosecond, even as he approaches seventy. So it’s amazing to think he was planning to quit in 2002. What a waste that would have been. Just think of all those championships and trophies he’d have missed out on. Count all the rivals he’s seen off since then.

As we went into the 2001/02 season, there’s no doubt that we were counting down the days until his retirement. He’d confirmed that this would be his last campaign, even though we’d won the last three championships. We’d been a machine trampling over our rivals, but now every week brought another story about the club’s future, about who might take over and what role the manager would play.

I couldn’t specifically say how all this chatter undermined the team. Most of the talking went on outside the club, but its unsettling effect was indisputable. There was no waning of the manager’s authority – not by a fraction – but I guess subconsciously you start to waste energy thinking about what lies ahead. And you can’t afford even the slightest distraction when you are in the business of chasing trophies.

Fearful of what the future might hold once the manager had gone, Steve McClaren departed to Middlesbrough, and he wouldn’t be properly replaced that season. We could have done with his tactical insight given that the team was in transition.

Jaap Stam was sold, which was a bombshell as big as Sparky leaving, even for the players – especially for the players. We were as mystified as anyone. All kinds of conspiracies swirled around because Jaap’s exit came on the back of his ‘controversial’ autobiography; but I’ve always believed that the book was a minor factor, perhaps irrelevant. I know the manager wasn’t thrilled about the book, and nor was I at being called a ‘busy c***’. Jaap had called me that to my face many times, and I know it was meant affectionately, but it didn’t look quite so clever spread across the front of the Daily Mirror.

He was very apologetic, because he was a big softie at heart, a big playful bear. Phil, Butty and I used to wind him up by flicking his ears or tapping him on the back of the head so he’d run after us, like a father chasing after a naughty kid. He didn’t mean any harm with the book, he’d just not thought through the consequences of serialisation, when little passages get blown up into big stories. As I explained to him, you can say Ruud van Nistelrooy was selfish when he was near goal but the headline won’t explain how that selfishness was part of his brilliance.

People came up with their conspiracy theories for Jaap’s exit, but all that counted was that the manager had lost confidence in him – a mistake, as he’d later admit. He thought Jaap had lost a bit of pace, and was dropping off. But even if that was partly true, he remained an immense presence for us in defence.

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