Gary Neville's decision to put a club coaching career on hold and move into television with Sky Sports is something that most football fans are grateful for.
Having being pretty much universally disliked by everyone except the Manchester United fans who adored him as a player, it has been interesting to see the football public warm to him in a TV studio, but that is mostly down to the fact that it's very hard to deny that he is a very good pundit.
Neville sat down recently for an interview with ESPN where he discussed his punditry career in detail, from explaining that saying it was "some sight when Gareth Bale opens his legs" was the worst mistake of his career so far, to how he deals with rival fans, and he mentioned that Liverpool and City fans in particular are usually good for a laugh:
I actually get a lot of Liverpool and City fans coming up to me and saying that they obviously didn't like me when I played but that they can just about put up with me now. I've had a couple of incidents where people have tried to have a go -- once coming out of Old Trafford after we'd played Liverpool and one at the Etihad. I go to a lot of games and 99 percent of the time -- even at Anfield and the Etihad -- there's humour without aggression.
He also revealed his feels in the dying moments of Manchester City's title winning comeback against QPR at the Ethiad stadium in 2012, and how quickly his mood changed as the game reached it's conclusion:
I'm always asked how I felt when Sergio Aguero scored the goal which meant Manchester City pipped United to the title in the final minute of the final game of the 2011-12 season. It was the most dramatic end to the season possible, and I was at the Etihad covering it. With a few minutes to play, that was the best place to be for a United fan. I was surrounded by all these miserable blue faces and broken hearts. It was fantastic.
Then Aguero scored and I was like, 'Get me out of here.' Everyone was going crazy, and they'd have liked nothing more than rubbing the win in my nose. I don't think we'll see anything as dramatic as that again.
What a nightmare that must have been for Gary Neville.
While he has been coaching with the England squad in recent years, he has delayed a venture into club football coaching to pursue punditry, and we hope he stays for a good while yet.
You can read the rest of the interview over on ESPN FC.
