Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel had a brutal training regime he used to scorch Gary Neville
Neville was given a rough introduction to life in the United first team by the club's senior pros, the ex-England international has revealed
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GARY NEVILLE has spoken of the "brutal" treatment he suffered at the hands of Peter Schmeichel and Manchester United's other senior pros upon his arrival in the first team.
Neville made his debut for the 19-time English league champions in 1992, aged 17, and went on to become one of the club's most decorated players.
He won 20 major honours and made over 600 appearances for the club, establishing himself as a legendary figure in the process.
But his introduction to life at United was a rough one, with several of the club's familiar names taking exception to any fall in standards.
He told the podcast: "They were tough, yeah.
"When I first got into the first team at 18/19, Peter Schmeichel, I've said it before, quite often was brutal with me. Now, I speak to him and we laugh about it, but he was brutal.
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The ex-England international added: “He didn't fancy me as a player that much.
"Peter Schmeichel was the goalkeeper and that back four of Bruce, Pallister, Parker and Irwin was legendary.
“Paul Parker picked up an injury and I started getting in at right-back, and obviously as a young player, you're not perfect, you make a couple of mistakes and he just absolutely battered me in training, daily, about my defending, my crossing.
“He used to do this crossing practice after the game and he used to stand on the penalty spot and catch it and say, 'That's shit'.
“He regularly just did that and he was actually just being really tough and horrible with me.
“It did affect me but to be honest, you have to just come through it and that's part of it because imagine if you crack when you go out on to the pitch with the fans booing you away from home.”
It was not until the 1994-95 season that Neville cemented his place in the United team, a side which then included the likes of Roy Keane, Paul Ince and Mark Hughes.
As his role as a Sky Sports pundit, the 43-year-old is required to analyse the performance of some of his former team mates as they embark on careers in management.
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However, at the start of his United career he was regularly the victim of criticism if he didn't appease those aforementioned figures.
He said: "Paul Ince was exactly the same, Roy Keane, Bryan Robson, Sparky - Mark Hughes - if you didn't play the ball into his feet when he made a run, the stare... it was a really tough group of players.
"Brucey [Steve Bruce], I remember one game at Leeds away, absolutely hammering me on the way in at half-time.
"I'd gone forward and I'd left him exposed in the channel. I probably should have been back alongside him and tucked in.
"I remember these instances of players really sort of being difficult or nasty, you'd say, actually, but looking back now, I'm so happy I came through that system of real leaders and characters as I saw them.
"It was tough but you had to come through it or you couldn't survive."