Manchester United legend Gary Neville has revealed he would have liked to have been a sports journalist had his playing career not worked out.
Neville made his first-team debut for United in 1992 and spent his entire career at Old Trafford before retiring in 2011. After retiring, he immediately joined Sky Sports as a pundit and is widely regarded as one of the best in the business.
As a result, it is no surprise Neville chose sports journalism when asked about his 'untaken career path' in an interview with the Guardian. "A sports journalist but I'd have to go back to school and do English again," Neville said. "Look at my grammar on Twitter. One thing I'll never be accused of is having someone ghostwrite my tweets – there's that many spelling mistakes!"
Neville has also been very outspoken about politics in recent years, with the Covid lockdowns and Boris Johnson's time as Prime Minister the catalyst behind his involvement. "Everyone watched those five o'clock briefings and hung on every word but all the way through, they were lying to us," he explained.
"People were losing their lives or unable to go to loved ones' funerals. Meanwhile, those ministers were scheming and giving contracts to their mates. A few months in, I realised: 'They're proper wrong 'uns, this lot.'
"The second thing was Boris Johnson. While he was prime minister, I felt we were in real danger. All my life, I've been in teams where you look after one another. This lot don't think that way. They're in it for themselves and on the take.
"It's damaging our country, our integrity, our international standing. We're a laughing stock. Johnson has got to be expelled from British politics for good. So do all his cronies who enabled him. With great leadership, we can be a great nation again but that'll never happen under this government."
Neville became a member of the Labour Party last year, but insists he will never run for office himself. "No, because I'd have to watch what I say," he added. "Politics isn't for me.
"I can only imagine what you have to do there [Westminster] to survive and I don't play the game, so how can I get in? So, when I ask myself the question 'do you want to dip your toes in?' I can't dip my toes in because I'm all or nothing. I go in and I'm going in."
The 48-year-old also claimed that "unusual things" have happened to him ever since he started criticising Johnson and the Tory government over their handling of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
