Gary Neville has responded to criticism about his Manchester United punditry, offering to step down from covering the club's matches if Sky Sports makes the request. The former United defender addressed accusations from fans that he has shown less passion for the club in recent years.
Speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Ferdinand told Neville: 'I spoke to a few United fans. Quite a few of them were saying ask him why he shows less passion and positivity about us now as a pundit?'
Neville acknowledged the difficulty of balancing his professional duties with his personal allegiance to Manchester United. He admitted that over the past decade, he may have misjudged the balance when commenting on his former club.
'It's a balance though Rio, isn't it? It's like, do I want City to win the league? I absolutely don't want City anywhere near the league title,' Neville said. 'I'll say it on here now. I don't want City or Liverpool to ever win a game of football again. I genuinely don't. But do you know something, to be a professional and do the very best, sometimes I maybe don't get the balance right with United.'
The 51-year-old pundit explained that covering United games is the hardest part of his job, as he feels pressure to be objective while still supporting the club. He stated that if Sky Sports instructed him to stop covering United, he would happily comply.
'If they said to me don't cover United games for Sky, let me just sit in the stand and watch them. I'd say yeah, all day long but I still do the games. It's difficult,' Neville added.
Neville also discussed the possibility of Cole Palmer moving to Manchester United from Chelsea. He expressed enthusiasm for the signing but acknowledged it was unlikely.
'I do like the signings of [Matheus] Cunha and [Bryan] Mbeumo last summer because they've had that grounding in the Premier League,' he said. 'They weren't gold but there was a removal of risk because they'd played in the Premier League and they were stepping up a level and they were young and hungry.'
'Those type of signings are good. There's talk of Cole Palmer and that looks like a signing that could be gold for Manchester United if he came to Old Trafford. I don't think it would happen though, I think Chelsea will hang onto him. But there's very few signings like that available, it's only every few years that these type of players become available.'
