Gary Neville says being late to training is ‘the most disrespectful thing’ a player can do after Nemanja Matic claimed Jadon Sancho and Paul Pogba were regularly late during his time at Manchester United.
But Neville also blasted Matic for his ‘unforgivable’ breach of dressing room confidentiality, despite the midfielder’s departure from United. Matic gave an interview to YuPlanet last week, discussing the standards he encountered at United.
“At Chelsea, players acted professionally, they were punctual and were never late for training but at United it happened almost every day,” Matic – who now plays for French side Rennes after leaving Roma – said.
“Among the players who would always be late were Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho and a couple of other players. The rest of us who were always on time were angry so we decided to form a kind of an internal disciplinary committee with me serving as its president.
“I put a sheet of paper up on the wall where I documented the names of individuals arriving late. During one particular season we collected around £75,000 in fines. We had planned to use the money to throw a party in London but we didn’t due to the Covid outbreak.”
Responding to Matic’s claims, Neville said that kind of behaviour from players is totally unacceptable. The former United captain also took aim at the Serbian player for going public with the information.
“I remember being late once when I was coming into Carrington, once in 20 years,” Neville told the Stick to Football podcast. “I got stuck in horrendous traffic; I was never late. I was ringing up, I was frantic, I was absolutely devastated.
“Just the standards that I set, just if anyone else was late I’d criticise people, because that is the most disrespectful thing you can do, making your teammates wait. Working hard goes without saying, but if everyone is waiting for you, you can’t be that person in life.”
He added: “I have been soft on the [Manchester United] players for 12 months because I’ve focused on the rotten environment with the ownership, there’s difficulties at the club for players to succeed just with everything that’s around them. A lot’s not right with the club, and hopefully new ownership will sort it out.
“But what we’ve heard from Nemanja Matic in the last week about lateness is something that just riles me. The biggest betrayal you can have in a football dressing room is when players or players’ representatives are going to the media to undermine the manager and other players in your dressing room.
“Honestly, that is unforgivable. For me, I concentrated when I heard these stories on ‘here we go again, they’re going to try and get another manager sacked’, ‘another group of players thrown out’, and you know it’s happening and that it’s been fed.
“I thought ‘stop winging, shut your mouths, work as hard as you can, and the day after, come back and do it again’ – that’s it. I have some sympathy with them at the moment and how it is at the club, the continuing poor recruitment, negativity, lack of sporting department. I’ve given them a pretty easy ride – but I have no sympathy at all for them if they are leaking stories or if they are being late.”
Sancho remains banished from United’s first-team after a falling out with manager Erik ten Hag. Pogba, meanwhile, left Old Trafford to return to Juventus in 2022.