Gary Neville, a former defender for Manchester United, has admitted that he is still surprised in the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson made the decision to sell a player who was considered to be “unbelievable” while he was attending the club.
After completing his youth training at United and becoming a member of the illustrious “Class of ’92,” Neville remained a member of the club throughout his entire career.
Between the years 1992 and 2011, the right-back played for Ferguson’s team at the professional level, making a total of 600 appearances for United across all competitions.
During those 19 years, he witnessed a large number of players join and leave the club. Some of the players who came and went during that time period include Cristiano Ronaldo, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Andy Cole, and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
However, there was one departure that was authorised by Ferguson, and Neville still finds it hard to believe it to this day.
Paul Ince, a midfielder, was sold to Inter Milan in the summer of 1995 after winning two Premier League titles with Manchester United the previous two years, in 1993 and 1994.
Channel 4 had started broadcasting live coverage of Italy’s top division in 1992, which coincided with the time when Serie A was in the midst of a significant expansion period.
At that time, a number of England internationals who had previously played in the Premier League and, prior to that, the First Division made the transition to Europe. It was something that was extremely uncommon during that time period.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Paul Gascoigne, David Platt, and Des Walker were all working in Italy, and Ince joined them in their endeavours there.
Towards the end of his time at the club, Ince had developed a contentious relationship with Ferguson, despite the fact that he had been a consistent member of United’s first team for the past six years. And the Scot came to the conclusion that he needed to be extremely cruel.
Neville made the following statement while appearing on The Overlap, which is brought to you by Sky Bet: “There were a lot of shocks for transfers.”
During his time with United, Ince was a tremendously impressive player. You were taken aback to the point where you thought, “That’s not really the case.”
[Andrei] Kanchelskis and Mark Hughes were both sold by him. And then you start to consider the possibility that Jaap Stam, Roy, or David Beckham will leave. They were extremely important players.
After spending two years in Italy, Ince would eventually make his way back to English football with Liverpool, one of United’s most formidable rivals.
Following the conclusion of his career with England in the year 2000, he went on to complete his domestic career with stints at Middlesbrough, Wolves, and Swindon before transitioning into management with Macclesfield Town.
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