Gary Neville Named Stadium He Found ‘Hard to Play Well’ in

Gary Neville was one of the best full-backs British football has ever produced. These days, he’s best known for being an extremely outspoken pundit, but his opinions are at least formed off the back of an impressive career.

After all, the Englishman made 602 appearances for Manchester United, proving himself to be a club legend along the way. In that time, and while on international duty too, he played in plenty of iconic stadiums.

However, there was one ground that he always found ‘hard to play well’ in. Interestingly enough, it was a home stadium, but not Old Trafford.

Gary Neville Did Not Play Well at Wembley

Wayne Rooney was fond of England’s home ground

During an interview on The Overlap with Wayne Rooney, Neville asked his former teammate what his favourite stadium to play in was. When the ex-striker said the new Wembley stadium, Neville was shocked:

Rooney, then quipped back: “Well, that’s you… I loved Wembley. I know it’s not the old Wembley, and it’s not as iconic but [I still loved playing there].”

It’s interesting that two players who played in the same generation could feel so differently about the same venue. With 13 wins from 14 appearances for England at Wembley, Neville’s record wasn’t actually that bad. However, with England usually expected to win at home, failing to win just under half of his games there (11) – four defeats and seven draws – may have been pretty disappointing.

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Neville Preferred Villa Park and Ibrox

Praised their quality and atmosphere

While he may not have enjoyed international games for England at Wembley, he has gone on the record previously stating which Premier League ground he looked forward to playing in. On that front, he praised Aston Villa’s Villa Park as his favourite away venue:

“There are some great new grounds in the Premier League. This [Villa Park] is an old ground, but don’t change it because it has got everything that you would need.”

That said, he chose a different British stadium, away from the Premier League, as having the “best atmosphere” he ever experienced. Indeed, he named Rangers’ Ibrox, saying:

“The best atmosphere I’ve ever seen in my life was Ibrox. As the game was about to kick off, I thought, “What the f**k is this? Honestly, for the first couple of minutes before the game and when the game started, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. Noise. Honestly, Ibrox, it was unbelievable. Staggering.”

Stats via Transfermarkt and National Football Teams.