Neville admits balance 'maybe wrong' and would accept Sky Sports ban from covering United

Gary Neville has admitted he may have got the balance wrong when covering Manchester United as a pundit and says he would have no objection to Sky Sports removing him from their games entirely if asked.

The former United right-back made the comments on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, after Ferdinand told him that several United supporters had raised concerns about his coverage. “I spoke to a few United fans,” Ferdinand said. “Quite a few of them were saying ‘ask him why he shows less passion and positivity about us now as a pundit?’”

Neville, 51, did not deflect the criticism. “It’s a balance though Rio, isn’t it?” he replied. “Sometimes, over the last maybe ten years, the balance, maybe I’ve not got it right. United are the hardest games I do. People might think that I’m more critical of United when they don’t play well.”

He added that he would welcome being taken off United fixtures altogether. “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.”

Neville also used the podcast to address his personal allegiances, insisting his feelings for United’s rivals remain unchanged. “I don’t want City or Liverpool to ever win a game of football again. I genuinely don’t. But to be a professional and do the very best, sometimes I maybe don’t get the balance right with United.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Neville turned to the transfer market and the speculation linking Chelsea forward Cole Palmer with a move to Old Trafford. He described Palmer as a rare ‘gold’ signing but doubted the deal would materialise.

“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,” Neville said. “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.”

Neville also praised United’s recent recruitment of Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, arguing that their existing Premier League experience reduced the risk typically associated with big-money arrivals. “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,” he said.