During the greatest period in Manchester United’s rich history, some of Europe’s best players represented the club under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Two of Fergie’s captains during his time at United were Gary Neville and Roy Keane, who reminisced about old times on Neville’s ‘Overlap’ show on Sky Sports
In the second episode of the series, the two chat with fellow Sky regular Jamie Carragher and special guest Stuart Pearce in a London Pie and Mash shop.
One conversation in particular was about Fergie’s desire to sign Pearce and debate then raged on where that would leave Neville’s career at United.
Pearce said Ferguson was so keen to secure his signature that he personally traveled to Nottingham as Forest’s then manager, Brian Clough, refused to take calls about an England international deal.
“So he (Ferguson) went to Nottingham, sat in the car and waited for him (Clough) to come out the front door because he wouldn’t return calls about me,” Pearce recalled.
Neville then admitted that the quality of Pearce and Dennis Irwin, the club’s other full-back, would have made it difficult for him to break into the United first team.
“I wouldn’t have come to United if you had gone to United. If you had gone left back, Dennis (Irwin) would have gone right back and I would have been screwed!” Neville said.
Next is Neville’s former captain Keane, who made generally sharp and scathing remarks.
“Then we could have won more!” he joked. Keane then moved on to his former teammate as Pearce and Carragher laughed.
“You’ve always been a lucky guy, I’m telling you. It ruined my dinner!”
“You on one side (talking to Pearce) and Dennis on the other. Good full-backs,” Keane said.
Neville took the taunts with good humor and the chemistry between the two was still evident.
As it turned out during his playing days, Neville didn’t fare too badly as he represented United over 600 times and won 20 trophies during his nearly two-decade United career.
