In Rooney, [Frank] Lampard, [Steven] Gerrard - how I wish [Paul] Scholes would come back, too - they are comparable to the best in Europe."The debatable point, though, is whether Sven Goran Eriksson is the character to lead them to that promised land. I wish it had never happened, and I don't think it would happen now."It would not occur at Old Trafford, where, he stresses pointedly, the players have "the benefit of a manager who doesn't throw you overboard when you make a mistake". Such management explains why Neville, the players' union representative, claims: "This shop steward thing is out of all proportion That's not me as a character. I don't need to be, not in a place in which the manager has got such a strict and tight rein over the camp and it's run so properly."The Bury-born player - he helps out at his local professional club while studying for his coaching badges - turned 30 on Friday, boasting some of the best form of his career and a presence on the field that has long made him an automatic selection for England.Caps are all well and good, but he yearns for that elusive international honour.
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He continues: "In the future, people will talk about Ars? Wenger, Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho too, and what they have said will become folklore I believe our manager is the best of all time We should want to hear him speak; not tell him to be quiet. I want to listen to a manager who is actually speaking from his heart."As Neville does, on a range of issues. In the last international week, he caused a flurry in the chicken coop of those sponsors feeding contentedly on the game when he maintained that Nike were using the anti-racism campaign to further their own ends. Last week, his observations on the importance of a strong British presence in the United squad were regarded by some - erroneously - as implied criticism of Arsenal, whose latest 16-man squad had consisted entirely of foreign players. Ah, dear old Red Nev, the pol-itico, posturing again, some observed, likening him to Fred Kite, Peter Sellers' consummate creation of a dictatorial, obdurate union official in the film I'm Alright Jack, when England's players threatened to strike in Istanbul ahead of England's 2004 European qualifier after Rio Ferdinand was omitted, by FA decree, following his failure to take a dope test at his club.Surely it was inconceivable that any England player should decline to wear that sacred shirt? "I don't know about everyone in the group," he declares. It was to do with principles, a player's rights."Neville says: "I can understand why at the time people criticised us and said, 'Oh, they're a bunch of touchy footballers, they're mad, they're arrogant'. But we had to make our point, that one of our team-mates had been so wronged." But stretched to the point where you threaten not to play for England, was that the right thing to do? He asks himself the question "Possibly not I have to say that now.
"But, yes, it was definitely a possibility for me, and for a few other players." He adds swiftly: "It was nothing to do with not wanting to play for England And it wasn't drugs we were arguing about. We should want our young players to have that feistiness about them."He plays football like he's desperate to win You can see it in his face He's like the kid in the schoolyard. Why not look at the most positive things about him and say, 'God, what an exciting player to watch' Look at [Eric] Cantona. We'll look back in 30 years and say, 'I'm glad we had Eric, with his volatile temperament. That's what gave us all those experiences, those moments of magic' Not everyone can be like Gary Lineker, and never get booked.