Red: My Autobiography

by Gary Neville

  The grass isn’t always greener. But Cristiano’s heart was set on the move and it was an offer United couldn’t turn down. Any club would sell at a world record £80 million.

  In the case of Carlos, it was a lot more complicated. The arrival of Dimitar Berbatov in September 2008 had been a challenge he hadn’t risen to. He was in and out of the team and he became insecure. After the hunger of the first year, he’d started to toss it off a bit in training. He was constantly saying his back was sore. He’d become very fond of a massage.

  Don’t get me wrong, I rate him as a player and like him as a person. Forget the handbags between us after he left, he’s a brilliant striker, as he proved for City. But I can only judge on what he did in that second season and, to all of us at United, it seemed that his heart wasn’t in it.

  He’d been upset by the signing of Berba, and Carlos is a player who needs to feel the love. He’s not someone who can play one game in three and be happy. Given the strikers we had through 2008/09 there was no way the manager could promise him a starting place, so he became disheartened and then made it worse by trying to get the fans on his side against the manager. That was never going to be a good idea. So it was time for his agent to line up another massive payday.

  Carlos was in the unusual position of being ‘owned’ by a third party, and I can imagine, knowing their principles, that United would have been uncomfortable with the thought of paying a huge transfer fee to agents. This was going to be tens of millions going straight out of the game. Rumour had it that the fee City eventually signed him for was astronomical and, based on his mood in his last year at United, it didn’t make sense to compete with that sort of financial deal. United faced a hard decision at the time and there was no great surprise in the dressing room when he left.

  He was an impact signing for City and, of course, they made the most of it. They put up the ‘Welcome to Manchester’ posters, but I never had a problem with that. You give some stick and you take it back. You have to try to beat them on the pitch. That’s what United do best. That’s what really kills people, winning trophies.

  Carlos and I had a little argument after he went. He overreacted to one innocent comment I made, and when we played City he gave me the big-mouth gesture. I stuck a finger up. It would have made for a quieter life if I hadn’t reacted, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, we can all be daft. I couldn’t walk down the streets in Manchester for weeks without either United fans slapping me on the back or City supporters giving me dog’s abuse. But that’s all noise. It’s what matters on the pitch that counts, and if Carlos really thought he’d be happier and more successful at City than United, that was his call, even if I didn’t think it made sense.

  Within a couple of seasons he was agitating for another transfer. I think he’s the type of person who will keep moving on. I suspect he won’t stay anywhere for longer than two or three years, and now he’s said he wants to leave Manchester. This is the city where he won trophies and became world famous so I was surprised to hear him say he couldn’t stand the place. Manchester was the making of him.

  *

  Ronaldo and Tevez, on top of Wazza and Berba, had given us the sort of attacking depth we hadn’t enjoyed since 1999 – though it was still not enough to overcome Barcelona in the Champions League final in 2009 in what would be the last United game for Tevez and Ronaldo. That final in Rome has gone down as one of the great disappointments of the Ferguson era because we never played like a United team can. We didn’t go down with all guns blazing.

  There has been criticism that we paid for a negative approach, but it was never our intention to see so little of the ball. The manager’s last words before the lads went out in Rome’s Olympic Stadium were as positive as ever: ‘Come on, you are European champions. Show the world what you’re made of.’

  We had set up to combat Barcelona, in a similar way to how we knocked them out in the semi-final twelve months earlier. That victory provided our tactical blueprint: a five-man midfield closing down the gaps and then Ronaldo causing them problems.

  The manager had shown us a video of all the goals Barcelona had conceded that season and we wanted to exploit a weakness. We knew Gerard Pique well from his time at United and were confident you could get at him one-on-one around the penalty area. He’s a big, tall lad and not always comfortable facing real pace. That’s why we were playing Ronaldo high up the field, in an effort to get him running at Pique. But our old teammate turned out to be brilliant.

  I have to say, in the first five minutes Pique showed guts I’ve rarely seen in a young defender. We were pressing Barcelona like mad but he kept taking the ball off Valdés and playing it out from the back. A couple of times he played unbelievably risky passes, but he trusted in the way he’d been taught. As a team, Barcelona didn’t wobble under pressure, they stuck to their passing game. That takes talent and a fantastic temperament. It’s what makes this Barcelona team of recent years so special. They’d do exactly the same after we blitzed them early at Wembley in the Champions League final of 2011.

  With Pique turning out to be such a fine defender, a world champion, people wondered why United had got rid of him, but it was timing and culture. At that time he didn’t fit the English mentality. He had incredible ability, was a great passer of the ball, strong and composed and enthusiastic around the changing room. But he wasn’t always at ease in the Premier League. A game at Bolton on a Saturday afternoon with Kevin Davies banging into him came as a shock to him and it affected his confidence. He probably needed to go back to Spain and develop as a player within his own culture. He was a fish out of water in England, and he couldn’t get the games to develop because we had Vidic and Ferdinand at their peak. It was just bad timing for him, but we were all very happy at United to see him enjoy success elsewhere – just a shame that he should have been so brilliant against us in two Champions League finals.

  Thanks to Pique, Barcelona weathered that early burst in 2009. When Samuel Eto’o scored with their first attack it knocked the stuffing out of us. They settled into their passing rhythm and we couldn’t get hold of the ball. We couldn’t do much at all. It was so strange for a United team not to have that fightback. Even if we are not playing well we can normally summon something. Get one goal, and then we’ll get two. Get two and a third will arrive. That’s the mentality. But the moment never came. They had mastery of the match, and we didn’t even begin to rattle them. They scored a second through Messi’s free header.

  People questioned the team selection, but the system and the approach was good enough to have beaten Barcelona a year earlier. Inevitably the critics pored over Ronaldo’s performance, too. He was always going to draw the most scrutiny, but at least he took the game to Barcelona. There were many disappointing individual performances that night. Ronaldo wasn’t blameless but I wouldn’t begin to put him in the line of fire. There were other players who will know that they did not perform close to what was expected.

  I watched all this unfold from the stands. I had to accept that I was now an occasional player, a squad member. I wasn’t even on the bench for the final, with John O’Shea in the team and Rafael da Silva as back-up. I couldn’t complain, given how I was now battling with a variety of aches, pains and niggles.

  I made sixteen league appearances that season and felt I had contributed to another championship. It felt sweet lifting that trophy knowing that we had drawn level with Liverpool on eighteen titles. It had taken a while but, finally, we were alongside them in the history books – an unbelievable achievement given where we’d started from. But no one was going to rest until we’d broken the record.

  Wazza and the Boss

  HOW MANY TIMES have we seen the boss doubted? And how many times has he made all those critics look like fools? I’d have thought people would know better, but within a year of us reaching consecutive Champions League finals for the first time in the club’s history there was a sense of doom and gloom around Old Trafford.

  The loss o
f Tevez and Ronaldo was, in the fans’ eyes, the end of an era. We were champions of England and still among the very best in Europe, but suddenly the terraces were plunged into pessimism. The fans and the media were convinced we were in a period of decline. Failing to win a trophy in 2009/10 was taken as proof of that.

  The supporters were twitchy that we’d not lured a marquee signing to replace either of our departing strikers. Antonio Valencia was a very shrewd buy in the summer of 2009, as he has proved, but he wasn’t a name. We had a look at Karim Benzema but he went to Real Madrid for £35 million and the manager complained publicly about the lack of value in the market. The fans decided that he’d had his hands tied by the owners. So suddenly, despite all the success, the Green and Gold campaign started.

  It’s very difficult for anyone within the club to comment on the Glazers. I grew up as a United fan and the last thing I did as a young kid was look to see who was in the directors’ box. My thoughts were with the team, the players, the fans, the atmosphere. I have never allowed that youthful enthusiasm and innocence to turn to cynicism.

  In all my time supporting the club I’ve never known any owners who were popular. Even when the club was a plc there were unhappy fans. But inside the club we have not been affected by changes of ownership; you wouldn’t have a clue that anything is different under the Glazer family. David Gill and the manager have been allowed to run the football side without interference. And make no mistake, in the boss and David Gill, United have the best possible people.

  When I look at the success of the last five or six years, the stability of the club, and the fan base, I would bet that 99 per cent of clubs wish they were in our place. You hear stories at some big clubs where owner interference and politics are rife, and I think United are in an excellent position.

  This has been an historic period for the club, but there is no doubting that the fans saw the glass as half empty in 2009. Rio had started picking up a few injuries, and at the time Vidic hadn’t signed a new contract. We’d lost Cristiano, and any team would miss the best player in the world. Chelsea, under Carlo Ancelotti, were making a new assault on the title and we had dropped off the pace.

  It wasn’t a vintage season for either club. We lost seven league games, they lost six. We put in some poor performances but still only lost the title to Chelsea by a single point. I admire Ancelotti, a good manager with a lot of class who never deserved the sack a year after the Double, but Chelsea weren’t particularly convincing.

  They had a little helping hand to win that 2009/10 title. Some thought it would be a big test for Chelsea playing at Anfield with a couple of games to go and the title still up for grabs, but at United we knew that Liverpool would ease off if that meant depriving us of the championship – especially a nineteenth championship that would take us past their record. We’d heard rumours during the week that some Liverpool players had turned round to one of their young lads and said, ‘There’s not a fucking chance that we’re going to let United win this league.’ I’ve no idea whether that rumour was true or not, but you could see that the game was a nice end-of-season stroll for Liverpool. You could see half their players on their summer holidays.

  We couldn’t complain, not publicly. It was up to us to make sure we weren’t in a vulnerable position. But it didn’t say much for Liverpool, or what they’d been reduced to under Rafa Benitez.

  With no trophy to show, surely Manchester United was going through a wobbly patch? But it was yet another example – and I’d seen it on enough occasions – of everyone outside the club leaping to wild conclusions that the rot had set in at Old Trafford. We’d be back in another Champions League final a year later, but you’d never have guessed that from the public mood.

  I ask again, how many times, going right back to the eighties, had the club and the manager been doubted? I couldn’t believe people had fallen into the old trap of questioning him. He was soon to prove why he is one of the great managers the game has seen.

  In October 2010, Wayne stunned everyone by deciding he wanted out of United.

  I say ‘stunned’, but it wasn’t a complete shock. There had been rumblings through pre-season that he was unsettled and it was clear his head was all over the place. England and Wayne had had a poor World Cup in South Africa and he was being attacked professionally and personally. He didn’t look happy in himself. Wazza is normally one of the most bubbly, noisy players in the dressing room. But after the World Cup he’d lost all that spark, that energy. We all noticed, though it was still a surprise when it leaked out that he was thinking about leaving.

  If a player wants to go elsewhere, that’s his concern. I’ll never understand someone who wants to leave United, but that’s their issue. But with Wayne it wasn’t just the decision but the way it was handled that was so bad. He acknowledged that himself when everything calmed down.

  With so much turmoil in his head and his form poor, what he needed was good advice. The last thing he needed was disruption and controversy. Going public was crazy. Like the fans, the players were discovering most of the club’s news through the papers, which was a massive mistake on Wayne’s part. It’s simply not the United way to agitate for a move through the media. In the end, the manager didn’t have any choice but to go public himself.

  The boss’s performance at that press conference when he talked about Wazza was unbelievable. My jaw hit the floor when I switched on the TV. You could see the boss was hurting that a senior player was questioning the club, but you could also see the defiance. He wouldn’t stand back and let United be picked apart by any player, however talented. It was like watching one of the manager’s team talks played out in public. The rest of the world could see what a great, inspiring leader he is.

  From the way the manager spoke, the situation seemed irretrievable. I think that is honestly the way the club felt at that point. And that was before Wayne escalated the situation the next day.

  We were just walking into the dressing room an hour or so before our Champions League game against Bursaspor and, as usual, the televisions were on in the corner. That’s when we saw on the bottom of the screen ‘Breaking News’. Wayne had put out a statement saying that he wanted to leave because the club lacked ambition and the squad wasn’t good enough. It would have been a bad thing to say at any time but it was madness to be putting it out an hour before a big game. He knew there was a match on, and so did his representatives. He’s a good lad, Wayne, not a troublemaker, so we were dumbfounded.

  I stood stunned in the dressing room. ‘What idiot has allowed him to put that out?’

  I know he must have been stung by the manager’s press conference but Wayne just needed to keep his head down. He’s a proud lad, a fighter, but his advisers should have been taking a deep breath, not putting out statements to the media.

  The manager came into the dressing room. He was pumped up. He’d had his team talk written for him.

  It was a testing moment. Our form wasn’t good. We were behind in the league and our star player was kicking off. But that’s when the manager is at his best. Something is triggered inside him. If he’s challenged, he fights back with everything he’s got. And that boldness transmitted itself to the team.

  It was all the motivation we needed to go out and win the game that night, and you could feel the fans rallying right behind the lads. The manager had taken the bull by the horns with his press conference. He’d shown once again that no player is bigger than the club, and never can be. The fans will have their idols but they know that’s the way it has to be.

  The next morning, I saw Wayne at the training ground.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘I’m staying.’

  ‘Fuck off! Really? Well, if you are, I think you’re going to have to apologise.’

  I don’t think he needed telling. Already his people were involved in damage limitation as well as sorting out a new contract with David Gill.

  Within twenty-four hours Wayne had called the players together at th
e training ground and said sorry to the lads. Then he’d say it to the supporters.

  It was a massive moment for him, and for the club. As usual, the lads started taking the piss. Patrice Evra told Wazza he must have crapped himself when he saw the gang of United fans outside his house. ‘So you shit yourself, eh Wayne, when you saw the balaclavas?’

  Genuinely I was happy that he’d made the best decision of his life. He’d made a mistake and misread the situation, but you had to wonder about the advice he was getting.

  Now that he’s committed to staying at United, I believe Wayne can become the new Keane or Robson. He’s in a different position but he has the power, the ability and the talismanic qualities. He’s still got that temper in him and always will have. But he’s approaching his peak years now. We’ve seen with many top players that you can’t take anything for granted once you are over thirty. In Wayne’s case, with the way he throws himself into the game, the running he does, the physicality in his football, I can’t see him still doing it at thirty-five. He started so young, a regular for club and country at eighteen. The next few years should be his best, and I look forward to watching him from my seat in the stands.

  He’s great around the changing room. He’s funny and good company. And he gives a hundred per cent every single match. You have a lot of time for players who are talented and also give their all like he does. United need special players like Wazza. The fans have embraced him again. They know what a player he is and how important he is to the future of the club. He’s always had it within him to be a United legend.

  He was bound to feel guilty, and, in one way, that could only help the club. The best way for him to make amends was to play better and to help the team win trophies. The manager could count on a new, improved Rooney now the whole nonsense was behind him.