Gary Neville happy for Sky Sports to remove him from covering Man Utd matches

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Gary Neville says he'd sit and watch Manchester United games in the stands if he was told by Sky Sports to stop covering games after accusations from fans. Ex-United teammate Rio Ferdinand told Neville that some fans he'd spoken to felt the former right-back showed less passion for the Red Devils.

Neville is a divisive figure among football fans, with some accusing him of favouring his former club, while United fans feel he's sometimes too harsh on them. The 51-year-old admits he may have got the balance wrong in the last decade.

On the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Ferdinand said to Neville: "I spoke to a few United fans. Quite a few of them were saying 'ask him why he shows less passion and positivity about us now as a pundit?'"

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Neville replied: "It's a balance though Rio, isn't it? It's like, do I want City to win the league? I absolutely don't want City anywhere near the league title.

"I'll say it on here now. I don't want City or Liverpool to ever win a game of football again. I genuinely don't. But do you know something, to be a professional and do the very best, sometimes I maybe don't get the balance right with United.

"United are the hardest games I do. People might think that I'm more critical of United when they don't play well. Sometimes, over the last maybe ten years, the balance, maybe I've not got it right.

"If they said 'to me don't cover United games for Sky, let me just sit in the stand and watch them.' I'd say yeah, all day long but I still do the games. It's difficult."

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Neville also discussed the future of Cole Palmer, who has been linked with a move to Manchester United from Chelsea . He said he would welcome the forward at Old Trafford but conceded the transfer is unlikely.

"I do like the signings of [Matheus] Cunha and [Bryan] Mbeumo last summer because they’ve had that grounding in the Premier League ," said Neville. "They weren’t 'gold' but there was a removal of risk because they’d played in the Premier League and they were stepping up a level and they were young and hungry.

"‘Those type of signings are good. There’s talk of Cole Palmer and that looks like a signing that could be gold for Manchester United if he came to Old Trafford.

"I don’t think it would happen though, I think Chelsea will hang onto him. But there’s very few signings like that available, it’s only every few years that these type of players become available."