'I'm like a kid at Christmas': Phil Neville on returning to United, working with Moyes and why he's no longer going to bed at 9pm

Had things worked out differently, Phil Neville would have been preparing for a TV career this summer.



Having agreed a role with the BBC, Neville would have been readying himself to go head to head with big brother and Sky pundit Gary. Some contest that would have been.



As it transpires, Neville is here in the steaming, stifling heat of Japan. It is the hottest day of the year in Osaka and Neville Jnr is wearing the colours of Manchester United once again as he prepares for a training session at the Nagai Stadium.



Enthusiastic: Phil Neville is enjoying his coaching role back at Manchester United

It is a coach’s top he wears now. Neville has been recruited as one of new United manager David Moyes’s staff and is struggling to wipe the grin off his face.



‘The couple of days before pre-season, when I knew I was coming back, was probably one of the proudest times of my career,’ Neville told Sportsmail. ‘The first day back at the training ground was really special, going back to a place I knew and still seeing the same faces and feeling the same love. I was on cloud nine. I still am. I’m loving it. It’s really challenging. To finish my playing career and automatically go into a job like this has been perfect.’



A full 12 hours before our interview, Neville had been on a training bike in the gym at United’s hotel. It was 7am and the former Old Trafford full back was on Twitter asking followers to suggest some music to mask the dull whirr of the pedals. ‘It’s the only time I get to myself now,’ he smiled.



Not that he would have it any differently. During an 18-year playing career that saw him clock up 263 league games for United and 242 under Moyes at Everton, Neville was the professional sportsman of cliche. Bed at 9.30pm. Straight to sleep. Put yourself first.



Only three-and-a-half weeks into his new job, it’s a little different.

Smiling: The former United defender can do little to hide his happiness at the club

‘I have gone from someone who goes to bed at 9-9.30pm to someone who, at 12 midnight or one in the morning, is still planning, preparing coaching,’ he said. ‘When your head hits the pillow it is still buzzing.



‘The change from my quite boring type of methodical planning I would do as a player is now that you eat when you get two minutes, you speak to people when you have got five minutes and you don’t normally have five minutes.



‘People say, ‘‘What are you doing all day?’’ but you are constantly trying to plan, prepare the players, and you are worried about the other staff and making sure everything is all right.



‘Yes, that is the manager’s job but as a coach, and his coach, it is my job to make sure he knows every bit of the information as well as he possibly can. I can’t wait for the first real game. I am like a kid at Christmas.’

Following a sibling's footsteps? Gary Neville is on the England coaching team New-look United: Ryan Giggs is also on the coaching team, led by David Moyes

If Neville cannot wait to reacquaint himself with the United public then the feeling will be mutual. The less vociferous of the two brothers, Phil never quite reached Gary’s playing heights but was appreciated for his football and his softer edges.



Having announced he was leaving Everton in April, Neville was considering a stint playing in the USA and had already agreed a deal with the BBC when Sir Alex Ferguson stood down and Moyes came good on a promise made three years earlier.



‘I was interviewed for the Everton job and spoke to Roberto Martinez about going back there as a coach as well,’ he revealed. ‘I was really impressed. I had also agreed a contract with the BBC and I thought maybe I would take 12 months out, go to the World Cup, learn, do my badges. But in the back of my mind there was always this little thing that I wanted to come back to United.



‘The turning point was when the gaffer got the job here. He had been promising me for three years that he would have me on the staff wherever he was. So it seemed like this was fate in a way. He got the United job and I came back home.



‘I was delighted when he got the job. I had worked so close to him and I knew more than anyone what it was like to be involved at this club. I knew he would be blown away by the experience of being the United manager. He was born for this job.



Inner circle: Moyes will rely on Neville and Giggs to help his transition into the United manager's role

‘I always felt that when I started coaching I would be worried and nervous but from the minute I walked in to the training ground it just felt right.’



Standing at the side of the field here on Thursday was to witness the changing of the guard in close up. Neville and his old team-mate Ryan Giggs are both part of the inner circle now.



The logic of Moyes’s recruitment strategy is beyond question but intriguing to observe nevertheless. What is immediately apparent is the absence of ego — important in junior coaches.



‘We have experienced coaches here and then we have me and Ryan, who are the younger ones,’ said Neville. ‘We are the ones who will continue the United legacy.



‘A large remit of the manager’s job is to continue to produce young players. To do that he needs people round him who have been through the system and understand it. For 12 months that will be our role. The coaching part we will pick up along the way. There will be times when we can be the link between the players and the manager as well.



Fans' favourite: Neville became Everton's captain during his time on Merseyside

‘I have just finished playing and you might say, either after a long flight or after this situation or that, players probably want to stay in bed an hour longer. And it is information like that which the boss is pulling from us at the moment.



‘To be honest, had I finished my career here and gone straight into coaching it would have been a bit difficult. But I have been away for eight years so they see me differently. They now see me as a coach.



‘Also, when you have the staff kit on — it doesn’t give you extra power but it gives you that extra bit of respect. It is inbred in this culture here.’



Youth product: Neville also forced his way into United's first-team picture

Neville is only 36. His was a career free of serious injuries. Had he wished, he could have played on. For him, though, that part of his life has gone.



‘Some people feel sad when it’s over but I didn’t,’ he said. ‘I just felt happy. I had done enough.’



What about that time, though, when he is home on a Monday night and Sky’s golden boy is pulling United’s weekend tactics apart in a familiar Bury accent? How will that feel?



‘Hopefully he won’t need to,’ was the perfectly appropriate answer.





