Gary Neville On Sir Alex: Part II

He helped us grow up fast. Sir Alex does not like his young players having agents. I am sure cynics would say it was so he could reduce their wages. But it was not that. He wanted his players to mature, to take charge of their own affairs, to become masters of their destiny rather than always looking for someone else to take responsibility. He would want to speak to his footballers face to face, to say: 'I know you. I've brought you through the ranks.' 

Sometimes, of course, they did need some help with negotiations, so I would go in to argue their case for what they wanted. Normally he would complain: 'Neville, you're having me over here.' But eventually he would give the player what he was asking for. Because he knew if he turned me down it would support the idea that players needed an agent to represent them in situations like that. 

And it was in those meetings that you would witness the paternal side of him. There was a young player who was worried to death as to whether he would be taken on next year, a big moment in a young player's career. So I went in with him and the bad news was that he was being let go.

But in the next breath he would say: 'I'll make sure you have a football club.' Within 10 minutes, he would have made a few phone calls to contacts in clubs and that young man was fixed up with a deal somewhere else.

Before he could even begin to feel sorry for himself, his next move had been sorted. Once, at a hotel in Reading before an away game, the manager sat at a table with some of the senior players and wrote down every player in the country who had been through Manchester United's youth team but were playing at other clubs. 

The list was huge, up to 60 players. He wanted to add it up in his own mind. It was massively important to him that he brought young players through to the first team but it was also massively important to him that players who did not make it at United made careers in football. 

Once you were a Manchester United player under him, you were always a Manchester United player, even if you left the club.