Gary Neville has revealed why he refused to shake the hand of his former Manchester United teammate Peter Schmeichel when the Dane had switched allegiances and lined up against Neville in a Manchester derby.
The clip of the encounter from 2002 at Maine Road has remained in circulation since the event, and shows the newly-minted City captain Schmeichel approaching a teammate he won a treble within 1999 for a pre-match handshake.
He was given short shrift by Neville.
The player-turned-pundit explained himself when speaking on the Quick Kevin, will he score? podcast. It was the crossing of divides that really did it for Neville.
“When you look back now and you’re 43, like I am, there’s two things about that,” he said.
“One, he left Man United at the age of whatever he was, 35, and he said he was retiring, basically to go abroad.
“At the time when he came back, he played for Manchester City. You can’t play for Manchester City. I’m a United fan and I can’t play for Manchester City, I can’t play for Leeds and I can’t play for Liverpool. That’s just written in stone. You just don’t play for those clubs, irrespective of what happens.
“He’d won the treble with United in ’99, said that he was retiring…he should have carried on playing for United for the next two or three years if that was the case. We struggled for a keeper between Peter and Edwin (Van der Sar).”
But Neville gave a more general reason for his blanking of the Dane that day, too.
“The other thing was at that time I hated everybody, we all did,” the former right-back continued. “Everybody hated us, we all hated everybody. That’s the way it was.
“With Sir Alex, you’re on an island and we were siege mentality. If you’re not on the island, do one.”
Take a look at the incident in question below.