Manchester United legend Gary Neville was a leader on and off the pitch and he also occasionally stepped up as an agent for his teammates.
Gary Neville spent a staggering 20 years at Manchester United, winning eight Premier League titles with the Red Devils before hanging up his boots in 2011.
Recently, Neville revealed he was earning £2.3m a year at United during his final year at the club – around half of what former teammate Roy Keane was earning at Old Trafford.
During that same episode of The Overlap, Neville added: “I did not negotiate my contracts, I just signed them, I was not bothered.”
However, while Neville admits to not negotiating his own deals, it seems he was ready to step in and represent his teammates.
Gary Neville wearing thick black coat
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Gary Neville negotiated Danny Simpson’s Man United deal
Danny Simpson spent four years as a United player, and he found himself competing with Neville for a spot at right-back.
Speaking exclusively on the Beyond The Back Four podcast, Simpson spoke about his time at United and revealed Neville once acted as his agent to negotiate with Sir Alex Ferguson.
“Gary Neville was the one that negotiated my new contract, telling the manager that I’m going to take over him. Sometimes young it can get to you,” Simpson said.
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“Sir Alex obviously didn’t like agents. I didn’t have one. So I asked Gary Neville like… what should I do? And he’s like, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll speak to him’.
“So obviously, Sir Alex had this little black book with where he thinks everyone should be at the stage of their career. Honestly it was just like a little black book with everyone’s wages in, pulls it out of his drawer, and he just starts writing things down and says where he thinks you should be.
“Obviously Gary Neville’s been through this process God knows how many times at this point, and yeah he says, ‘Can’t we do a little bit more on the signing-on fee boss, he needs to get a place to stay, he needs a car.’ And I’m just sat there quiet as a mouse.
“And then whatever got agreed I was happy to sign.”
Sir Alex Ferguson’s hatred of agents at Man United
Football has changed dramatically since Ferguson’s years in charge of United, especially regarding the finances involved.
Superagents now boast a whole clientele of players, and it sounds like Ferguson’s worst nightmare.
Back in 2011, Ferguson spoke about his hatred of agents. As quoted by The Guardian, he said agents had “an imagination beyond belief”, with one demanding an apartment block as part of a deal, while others asked for “unbelievable” clauses.
READ MORE: Ruben Amorim channels inner Sir Alex Ferguson with ‘everyone thinks’ message ahead of Arsenal clash
Interestingly, many of Ferguson’s players never even hired an agent to represent them. Simpson speaks about having Neville represent him, while Neville has also admitted that he never hired an agent.
Paul Scholes had no agent and insists he never thought about leaving United throughout his career.