Manchester United legend Gary Neville has confirmed that his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson was prepared to employ dark arts around this time of year when he managed the club.
The March international break is here with England facing a high-profile friendly double-header against Belgium and Brazil as Gareth Southgate gears up his preparations for Euro 2024.
And with the break, comes the usual club-versus-country debate, as teams look to protect their players ahead of the domestic run-in, with the Premier League facing a three-way scrap for the title between Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City. Players are playing more matches than ever before, but the issue of withdrawing from international friendlies is not a new one.
The absence of Manchester United players from international squads during Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure was a common theme and Neville has revealed how his old boss at Old Trafford used to approach the March break.
“I always think about the March international break because this is where Sir Alex Ferguson would pull players out of playing for their country,” Neville said speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet.
“I said it a couple weeks ago that it would be interesting to see how many Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool players would play in this break – you’ve already got ‘injuries’ for Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne is out, Gabriel has been withdrawn, so it’s happening already.
“In the 1998/99 season, when we were going for the treble, in the March international break, Sir Alex Ferguson pulled David Beckham, Paul Scholes and myself out the England squad, and let Nicky Butt, Wes Brown and Phil Neville play for England, so it was like three in and three out. Sir Alex hated the March international break.
“There was seven of us playing for Manchester United and England, and if it was a proper qualifier the boss wouldn’t have any issues with us playing, but if it was a friendly in the March break, he wasn’t having it.
“It’s a badly placed international break, during a title run in. Push it into early December or August, but I don’t think it should split the season.
“Sir Alex would have done a deal with the England manager to make them not play in March if we had silverware to go for. He would have said that we could play in the summer in the off-season, but not when we’re going for a treble like we were in 1999.”
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