”I had a bit of luck last season. I got shoved into midfield
because we had injuries, and Carlos [then Ferguson's
assistant] took me to one side in training. He told me he
thought midfield might be my best position, and I've never
looked back.

”I certainly enjoy it more than full-back. You get a lot
more freedom. Carlos showed me videos and told me the
positions to take up. It wasn't easy, but it was an
enjoyable challenge. He explained I could be the one to hold
the midfield, the one to sit in and pick up the player who
drops off from the front. He told me I would get plenty of
games in that position, and that is how it has worked out.
Never for one minute has it affected my relationship with
Nicky. It's probably brought us closer, although we are
close any way. We sit together on the bus. He knows the
score. There is not room for both of us if Roy Keane is in
the team, and obviously he is the first name on the
teamsheet.”

Phil was asked about Keano’s recent criticism of certain United
players and said:

”That's Roy for you, he's just being honest. I'm not sure he
said Arsenal will win the title in so many words, but
there's no doubt they have the upper hand at the moment.
They are just not slipping up, and we are. They can go
behind and still win, they can play without Thierry Henry
and still win. They are setting the pace. Roy knows that,
and he's not happy about it.

”It is a bit like having two managers sometimes, but at
least they are singing from the same hymn sheet. And it's
not as if Roy is saying anything he hasn't said in the
dressing room, to the players' faces. What is said between
those four walls usually stays there, but sometimes going
public has more effect. It doesn't go in one ear and
straight out the other then, and it reassures the fans we
know something is wrong.

”It's part of the captain's job, to keep people on their
toes. It might be we need a little bit of a jolt, because
since Christmas we've been poor. We were lucky to win
against Southampton and Everton. You could gloss over that
and say we got the three points, but at this place that's
not good enough. Roy has high standards, and he sees there
might be problems ahead.

”We are in Europe this week and if we defend like we have been
doing we'll find ourselves out of the Champions League. We
need to raise the bar, and we don't need a captain who beats
about the bush. It would be wrong for Roy to come out and
say everything is hunky dory, because it's obviously not. We
are playing for the biggest club in England, and you can't
fool the fans. They know we are leaking goals. It's
obvious.”

Phil feels that the European Cup is the number one priority
at Old Trafford this season:

“It is probably the competition we most want to win. I do,
especially, and Roy and Paul Scholes would certainly say the
same. We all got medals for 1999, but there's something
missing for those of us who didn't play in the final.

”When I'm retired I want to be able to tell my kids I played
in a European Cup final. I don't want to have to say I
watched one from the substitutes' bench then kept getting
knocked out in the quarters and semis. The present Champions
League format might suit us. I'd back us to beat most clubs
over two legs. Porto will not be easy, but if we can't beat
Porto over two legs we wouldn't deserve to win the European
Cup in any case.”

Having come through as part of what the players call the
‘Alan Hansen generation’, Phil is all too aware that the
recent crop of signings will be the ones who replace him in
the next few years:

”The manager is signing players to replace us. You only need
to look at the ages and positions of the targets he is going
for. He's got Liam Miller from Celtic, and he is trying to
sign the Dutch lad [Arjen Robben]. They all fill the same
positions as the class of '92.

”We won't all be stepping down together though. It will be a
gradual process. It's important to give young players who
come to the club time to learn. People like David Bellion
and Cristiano Ronaldo are doing that at the moment, they are
finding out what it takes to be a United player. I've got
two years on the Alan Hansen generation anyway, so hopefully
I'll be the last to leave.”

Looking back to the time when he broke into the first team,
Neville has no doubt as to which player’s influence created
the current ethos at Old Trafford:

”That was an unbelievable time. Eric was my idol then, and
most of the lads I came through with would say the same. You
read stories about being told to watch him training, but we
didn't need to be told. We all used to watch him train.

”The ethos of the present team has all come through watching
Eric. When I first started, training sessions would end and
everyone would trot back in. That doesn't happen now.
Everyone stays behind for extra skills practice, you very
rarely see anyone leaving early, and that's all down to Eric
Cantona. He improved this club so much, and he won the
league for us in his first season.

”In the Alan Hansen season he won matches for us on his own.
He would regularly score to turn a 0-0 draw into a win. He
was special. We were all shocked by the Crystal Palace
incident, but that was Eric, he did the unexpected. What he
did was wrong, and he got severely punished, but you won't
hear a bad word said about him at Manchester United.
Especially not by me. I'm still gobsmacked by what he did,
but only because I could never imagine myself doing anything
like that. I've never had a fight in my life, I don't know
any kung-fu moves or anything about headbutts.”