
Phil Neville might just be the first man to enjoy coaching Manchester United more than he ever did playing for them. He reflects fondly on a career as a professional footballer, and with great pride too.

Neville has a room in the basement of his stylish Cheshire home devoted to his achievements at Old Trafford and Goodison Park.

But he says coaching United, as an assistant to David Moyes, consumed him in a way that playing never did.

VIDEO Scroll down to see Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs on England failings

Phil Neville, in an exclusive interview with Sportsmail's Matt Lawton, says he loved his role when working as a coach at Manchester United

Former Manchester United, Everton and England midfielder Neville has great memories from his playing days in a room at home

It was the task of challenging ‘the most professional set of lads you could wish to work with’ on a daily basis. The acute sense of responsibility.

‘I once woke up at 4.30 in the morning and wondered if it was too early to go into work,’ he says. ‘My wife would laugh at me, but it got so bad I wanted to sleep there. I was sleeping two hours a night, because I just wanted to go back to work.

‘I was so professional as a player but as a coach, I actually wanted to move into Carrington. It really was the best thing I’ve experienced in my football life, being a coach. Better than anything I ever experienced as a player.’

It made his departure from Old Trafford in the summer all the more distressing. The first time he left, to move to Everton aged 28 in 2005, it was on his terms. He had a sack full of medals and 15 years of wonderful memories.

‘It was harder, this one,’ he says. ‘I left the first time a success. I left the second time feeling that I’d been a failure. It wasn’t that I felt I hadn’t done my job well. Because I think I did do it well. But I left a failure because we hadn’t succeeded. It left a real emptiness in my stomach and it’s taken a long time to recover from that pain.

Relaxing on the couch is something Neville hasn't done too much of since calling time on his playing career in 2013

’When I went to Everton it was my decision. I could see it was the end of my shelf life. I’d achieved everything I wanted to; I left with no regrets.

‘This one wasn’t my decision. I left feeling, firstly, that I was still good enough to be one of the coaches. But secondly that I had coached a United team that had finished seventh, and that hurt.

‘I look back at the disappointments I’ve experienced. The England disappointments. The United disappointments. I think the last year will have more of an effect on me than anything else.’

He describes the day Moyes was dismissed, back in April, as his professional nadir.

‘My worst day in football,’ he says. ‘Terrible.

‘I’m not sure I was shocked, so much, by the dismissal. I was just shocked by the way it was handled. Anyone can get sacked in football. But I was shocked by the way they did it; hearing about it the day before. The media seemed to hear before the manager and the staff.

Neville loved working with David Moyes when the Scot bossed Manchester United even though results didn't always go their way

Neville looked much happier on a run celebrating a Manchester United goal during a Champions League tie at Bayern Munich...

...and he felt at home on the training ground - so much so he sometimes wanted to sleep there instead of going home

‘This was Man United. This was a club that, for me, did things the right way. I just thought we didn’t do it the right way. We could have handled it the way the club has handled big decisions in the past.’

It was late on that Easter Monday that Neville finally realised his manager’s position was in jeopardy. The next morning he was up early as usual, and at Carrington by 7am.

‘We all got in early,’ he says. ‘It was bad because these are my friends. These are people I have a lot of respect for. This is a man who gave me an opportunity. I only went back to United because of David Moyes.

‘I’d never seen people lose their jobs like that. The gaffer came out and said he thought I was safe for the time being. And when I spoke to Ed (Woodward) he asked me if I would stick around to assist Ryan (Giggs).

‘But that didn’t make it any easier. I was just in a daze. Half an hour later I’m out on the training ground. It was just surreal. I was trying to organise a session with Ryan but my head was mashed.

‘I wasn’t there when David then spoke to the players but I think it was Anders Lindegaard who came out and said the manager had just given one of the best speeches he’d ever heard.

‘The manager is an honourable man. He didn’t have to address the players, but he wanted to.

‘If he walked back into Old Trafford now he’d get a standing ovation. The fans recognise he had guts taking that job. A few top managers went ducking for cover when it became available, but David Moyes said, “I’ll take the job”. I think he should be proud of that.’

Neville helped pal and former team-mate Ryan Giggs when the Welshman took temporary charge at United after Moyes' departure

Neville knew there was no future for him at Old Trafford once Moyes had gone.

‘The minute he got the sack I was always leaving at the end of the season,’ he says. ‘That four weeks with Ryan was magical. The gaffer encouraged me to stick around and support Ryan. He told me it would be good experience when I’m just starting out in my coaching career. Which I thought was brilliant.

‘But we knew pretty quickly Ryan wouldn’t be getting the job and I feel that when one man brings you in, it’s important you leave with that regime as well.’

It is 11.30am on a Monday morning and Neville claims to have just made coffee for the first time in his life, insisting he would ‘never drink the stuff’. He is also sitting on a sofa in his living room; something he insists is a rare occurrence too.

‘I like to be busy,’ he says. ‘It was why I enjoyed being first-team coach at United so much.

‘Going out on to that training field, planning training, working with the best set of lads you could ever wish to know.

‘The gaffer and Steve Round [Moyes’ assistant] gave me responsibility straight away. They threw me in at the deep end and said, “You’ve got to be able to handle this”.

‘If Man United players sniff any uncertainty or a lack of organisation, they will be at you. So you have to be on it every single day, in every single session. You always have to turn up with your A game.

‘I wanted to be planning the teams and planning training for the next four games. The other coaches would tell me I’d be dead by the time I was 45 if I kept going the way I was. But I loved it.’

Everton snapped up Neville when he left Manchester United in 2005 after 15 years at Old Trafford where he played in defence and midfield

Neville retired from playing at the end of the 2012-13 season and is pictured here with Moyes and Toffees team-mate Tim Cahill

PHIL NEVILLE' TROPHY HAUL Premier League - 1996, 97, 99, 2000, 01, 03 FA Cup - 1996, 99, 04 Champions League - 1999 Community Shield - 1996, 97, 2003 Intercontinental Cup - 1999 He won 59 England caps Advertisement

So where, in his opinion, did things go wrong?

‘There were some things we did that were good, and some things we did that we could have done better,’ he says.

‘But part of me also thinks it was an impossible job; that maybe David Moyes was never going to succeed. I almost wonder whether the club needed the David Moyes era to then be able to move on in the Louis van Gaal era.’

Neville says those same players he praises so much did struggle to adapt to a new manager’s methods.

‘There was a resistance to change,’ he says. ‘But look, Alex Ferguson was God. And had I still been a player I would have probably been the same. I’d have been saying “this is what we do and this is how we’ve been successful”.

‘If you asked the players about our training, I think they’d say they enjoyed it. But it was probably the resistance to change that was the big thing; someone else coming in and trying to do things a little bit differently, although only a little bit differently.

‘At the same time it was also probably a team that had come to the end of its shelf life, so perhaps we should have been more ruthless with that team in terms of recruitment.

Neville, right, next to brother Gary, won the Champions League, beating Bayern in the Nou Camp, as part of United's historic Treble in 1999

Neville sitting in front of (from left) Eric Cantona, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Roy Keane after Manchester United finished the title-winning 1996-97 season with a 2-0 victory over West Ham at Old Trafford

Phil, again with brother Gary, managed to get his hands on the Premier League trophy six times with Manchester United

‘But then you’re taking over a team that has just won the league by 11 points, and you don’t change that.

‘Our first transfer window was probably the beginning of the end, in that we didn’t bring in the freshness that we needed.

‘From then onwards it was an uphill struggle. I don’t think we ever got the team playing to the level David Moyes wanted them to play. We couldn’t get the momentum you need to win trophies.

'The biggest disappointment was losing that League Cup game to Sunderland. If we had gone on to win a trophy, beating Manchester City, things could have been very different. That was the turning point. Everything seemed a struggle and a fight after that.

Manchester United crashed out of last season's League Cup after losing a penalty shootout to Sunderland

’I’ve thought long and hard about last season. Maybe we could have been more ruthless in the first transfer window. Maybe the gaffer needed to understand United quicker than he did. But that’s hard. That’s why he needed time. He should have been given more time.’

Neville has recognised the importance of time in his new role as co-commentator and pundit on television and radio. It was a luxury he certainly realised was needed when he attended the World Cup in Brazil for the BBC. In particular after his co-commentary on England’s encounter with Italy.

‘I joked the other day that out of 15 million people who watched that game only 400-odd complained, so I should actually be quite happy with that,’ he says.

‘They said I was too monotone, and maybe my delivery wasn’t great. Looking back, I probably wasn’t up to the job at the time. The BBC got a lot of stick, and maybe they shouldn’t have put me in for a game like that. But I encouraged them to do it. I’d done a lot of work beforehand.

‘But it was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I’d like to think we’ve moved on from there. Credit to the BBC guys, too. They were very supportive. And I responded by telling them I wanted to do as much co-commentary as possible.’

He received support and guidance from an unlikely mentor.

‘After I got back from Brazil I went to the cricket to do a Test Match Special with Jonathan Agnew,’ he says. ‘And Geoff Boycott was there. “Come ‘ere son,” he says, and for the next hour he took me into all the different broadcasting boxes and introduced me to everyone. And then we sat down and talked and, without really knowing it, he gave me an hour’s masterclass on commentary and working in the media.

Neville was on the losing side the last time he faced his former club - going down 2-0 in February 2013

‘”What you need to do lad is get on that radio,” he says. I started laughing. I thought he was trying to tell me I had a face for radio.

‘But he said, “Find your voice, get your confidence”. And he made the point that it’s that bit easier to make a mistake on the radio, because if you describe something wrong the guy driving down the M6 won’t know. There’s a bit more of a safety net and a chance to gain some confidence. So I’ve done loads of radio since then, and if there was a bit of lingering nervousness at the BBC it soon started to lift.’

Now he is covering up to five matches a week and when he isn’t at a game he is preparing for one.

‘I’m never at home,’ he says. ‘Andy Townsend told me you have to work at this job. It’s no different to being a plumber or an electrician. You’ve got to be out there, every day, learning your trade.

Former England international Neville was criticised for his co-commentary at the World Cup in Brazil and accused of being too monotone...

‘I’m all over the place. I went on the Tube for the first time. I’m walking around London like a student, having a beer. Gary (his brother) said, “What the f**k are you doing Genoa-Palermo for?” But I love it. There’s a player at Palermo who is going to be a superstar, by the way. Paulo Dybala. Remember that name.

‘I’m approaching this media job the same way I did coaching and playing. I’m now studying all the time. I read a lot of newspaper articles, formulate my own opinions, look at stats and watch a lot of games. This afternoon I’m free but I’ve got two Bundesliga games to prepare for because I’m commentating on them later in the week.’

Recently he declined the opportunity to return to football, choosing to honour his contract with the BBC when Moyes invited him to join him at Real Sociedad.

‘My wife was surprised I said no,’ he says. ‘She sees me as a manager or a coach, and we had always talked about one day living abroad with the kids. But I want to take control of my own destiny more now.

...he has since admitted to having help from an unlikely source in his bid to improve as a pundit

A meeting with Geoffrey Boycott (right) turned into a commentary masterclass that has helped Neville

‘A few months ago I would have said, yeah, the aim is simply to get back into football. But there’s a world of opportunity out there and four or five months into another job, in the media, I’m realising this break from the game was what I needed. From retiring as a player, to then working with Stuart Pearce and the England Under 21s, to then going back to United, I’d had no break at all.

‘Now I’m looking at my life, and at football, a little differently. It’s given me a new perspective. The change has been good for me.’

From a distance Neville also watches the business of football with some dismay.

‘I keep seeing managers getting sacked, not being given time, being treated like s**t, being hung out to dry,’ he says.

‘I got offered a job in the summer – Brighton – and I turned it down, and people close to me thought I was stupid.

‘But if I’m going to do something I need to be good at it. I need to have done all the qualifications. I need to get enough experience under my belt.

‘Right now I just don’t think it’s for me. One, because I don’t think I’m ready. I’m doing the Pro Licence at the moment but I don’t have enough experience. I’ve not done enough hours in the trenches. I’ve signed a two-year contract with the BBC and I see it as part of my learning. And there may be another path for me.

‘Gary and I speak all the time about being ready. About picking the right job, picking the right chairman to work for. Are you better off being in an executive box as a sporting director? We own a football club at the moment (Salford City). Is that the way forward?

The Nevilles played when Salford City faced the Class of 92 to raise money for the club earlier this year

Are we going to get our enjoyment from something else rather than simply sitting on a bench somewhere? And we are very fortunate to be in a position, financially, where we can take our time and hopefully make the right decision.’

So this weekend he will be in the television studio, a guest reflecting on a weekend of FA Cup football on Match Of The Day 2.

He is visibly excited by the prospect. In fact the only time he hasn’t enjoyed the new job was when he returned to Old Trafford to work.

‘It didn’t feel great to be honest with you,’ he says. ‘After one game I phoned Gary and my dad, and I told them it just didn’t feel right being there. And I say that as a United fan. I just want my life to move forward. I don’t want to be looking back.’