Gary Neville has pulled no punches in his assessment of his long international career in his forthcoming book, including some strong opinions on practices used by the former England manager Glenn Hoddle.

In his book, the former Manchester United full-back, who retired in February after playing 400 times for United and winning 85 caps, calls his England career "a massive waste of time" and says that many players lived in fear of excessive criticism from supporters and the media.

"It should be fantastic, the best moments of your life [playing for England]" writes Neville in his book, Red, which is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday. "But there is no doubt that too many players spend too much time fearing the consequences of failure when they pull on an England shirt."

Neville also criticises the Football Association over its managerial appointments and highlights some controversial methods utilised by Hoddle between 1996 and 1999.

"There's no doubt that the FA mishandled managerial appointments, letting [Terry] Venables go too easily and appointing Glenn Hoddle and Steve McClaren before they were ready," Neville writes. "Hoddle took over from Venables and it's been said before: if only he had possessed the man-management skills to go with his undoubted football intelligence. He was a very good coach who wanted England to play the right way.

"He also believed in alternative methods, including Eileen Drewery, the faith healer, who'd visited the camp a few times before the World Cup. As a bit of a sceptic, I'd never gone to see her. When the 1998 World Cup started, some of the players started taking injections from Glenn's favourite medic, a Frenchman called Dr Rougier. It was different from anything we'd done at United, but all above board, I'm sure.

"After some of the lads said they'd felt a real burst of energy, I decided to seize any help on offer. So many of the players decided to go for it before that Argentina match that there was a queue to see the doctor. Before the game, Glenn did his usual pre-match routine of moving around the players, shaking their hands and touching them just over the heart. We'll never know if the methods had any positive effect.

"One of the masseurs told me Glenn had asked the staff to walk around the pitch anti-clockwise during the game against Argentina to create positive energy. Sadly, it didn't do us much good."

Neville was also critical of Kevin Keegan, Sven-Goran Eriksson and McClaren, a former coach at Old Trafford, and in particular the latter's decision to take the captaincy away from David Beckham.

"Things got so bad during Kevin's reign that it was a relief to be left on the sidelines or injured," said Neville. "As well as the problems with the team, I was never thrilled about the gambling culture off the pitch. The amount of time spent on horse racing or cards was ridiculous. It was all very old school, completely different to what I'd become used to in terms of discipline, focus and preparation at United.

"Eriksson took over from Kevin and made instant improvements. I liked Sven from the start. I would have reservations by the end, but the first few years were as enjoyable as any in an England shirt.

"By the World Cup in 2006, we were still way too reliant on an automatic first XI. The big names were guaranteed to play rather than the best team. It seemed to me like a fudge to get around the issue of how to keep Becks, [Steven] Gerrard and [Frank] Lampard in the same side.

"I felt sorry for McClaren during his reign as manager… it would also turn out to be a mistake dropping Becks, Sol Campbell and David James from his first squad. We could all see what he was trying to do. He was trying to start a new regime. But to drop Becks altogether didn't make sense."