Gary Neville gives fascinating insight into football and business world including former SAFC manager Roy Keane

Sunderland Echo

Gary Neville speaking at The Fire Station in Sunderland

Transcript

00:00 [Applause]

00:15 Wow, did you ever get a reception like that at a stadium of light?

00:18 No, no, never.

00:22 I look back at your career again, Sunderland, actually, you only got beaten once.

00:26 So you did always have...

00:28 Oh, I don't remember.

00:30 Don't remember? I don't remember.

00:32 Do we get any massive ones?

00:34 I remember having an argument with Adrian Heath and Peter Reid once at Roman Park,

00:37 the first time I played there, but I don't remember getting beat, but we obviously did.

00:41 OK, well I'll have to look at that, I'll give you the details.

00:44 I'll start with an easy one to get the audience on side.

00:47 Would you like to see Sunderland back in the Premier League?

00:51 Yes, I would.

00:54 Growing up at Manchester United, it was a given that you played at Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Newcastle,

01:00 you played many games at Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Leeds United,

01:07 and that you played six, seven times with me at Burst Services, we'd travel up in the coach and go north.

01:14 And then in the last few years, I mean obviously Leeds came back in momentarily,

01:22 Newcastle obviously are back in now, but there's no doubt that the shift that's always been there,

01:29 so if you like, south of England to the north, I think it's happened in the Premier League,

01:34 where the investment into Premier League clubs has occurred more in the south of England.

01:39 There was a time a good few years ago where there was no representation from either the north-east or Yorkshire,

01:45 and that was, I mean I highlighted it at the time quite a few times, that it was scary,

01:49 because like I say, my early years at United were based around travelling as much north as it was south,

01:53 and that's what the Premier League was, the top division in our country, there was an inequality to it.

01:58 We accept the fact that it's never going to be, it may no longer be the local family owning the club like it was maybe 50, 60 years ago,

02:05 and where that still happens, great, we accept that I think, but what we don't accept is the disconnect

02:10 between the ownership and the values and the principles, and the lack of understanding of the values and principles

02:15 that exist in the local community and where the fan base are at. It can happen in politics, it does happen in politics,

02:21 but it can happen in football clubs, and it's unacceptable, it's not something that I like,

02:25 and that's why I call it out wherever I go and I see an ownership that isn't connected to a football club.

02:30 But thankfully I think we're on the right tracks again here now.

02:32 Brilliant, and I think that leads nicely into, I remember watching you live when you talked about the European Super League plans

02:39 which had been announced that morning, I'll quote you back on some of what you said,

02:42 I think it was fair to say that Gary had strong views on this, you called it a "disgusting and disgraceful, pure greed,

02:48 a criminal act against football fans", and he went on to call big club owners behind the ESL plan "impostors, jokes and bottle merchants".

02:58 And you've even written a book haven't you called it "People's Game" about how we safeguard the game that we all love.

03:06 So the ESL plans have gone away, but do you still fear for the future of football as you would like it to be?

03:13 Or are you more confident in that?

03:14 No, I mean I'm sat here as a Premier League football player who has benefited enormously from the wealth in the Premier League,

03:20 and you know I absolutely...

03:23 This has been an absolutely fascinating insight, some real inspiration there, we've touched on business,

03:28 we've touched on leadership, we've touched on politics, and of course we've had a nice little delve into football there as well.

03:35 Can we give a massive round of applause for Gary?

03:38 [Applause]

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