Neville blasts Matic for committing ‘biggest betrayal in dressing room’ after ex-Man Utd star’s ‘unforgivable’ interview
GARY NEVILLE has blasted Nemanja Matic for committing the “biggest betrayal in the dressing room” following his “unforgivable” interview last week.
The Serbian midfielder, 35, left Chelsea to sign for Manchester United in 2017.
He spent five years at Old Trafford before leaving for Roma in 2022 after 189 appearances.
Now in France at Rennes, Matic has caused a huge stir by revealing how the standards at United are far lower than at his previous club and rivals Chelsea.
And he revealed how Paul Pogba, now at Juventus, and Jadon Sancho, currently frozen out at the Red Devils after his public spat with Erik ten Hag, were often late to training with one season in particular players racking up a whopping £75,000 in fines for lateness.
United legend Neville admitted that those standards were completely unacceptable, however, he also took aim at Matic for breaching dressing room confidentiality.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap, brought to you by SkyBet, he said: “I remember being late once when I was coming into Carrington, once in 20 years.
“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.”
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Then he took aim at Matic’s decision to go public, saying: “I have been soft on the [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 f***ing unforgivable.
“For me, I concentrated when I heard these stories on ‘here we go again the f***ers, 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.”
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