Gary Neville has blasted fellow professionals who are so cocooned and mollycoddled by an entourage of agents and advisers that they are unable to open a bank account or buy their own fridge. Neville, United’s club captain and PFA , says that pampered players cannot make their own decisions and waste money on agents who perform simple tasks.
“It is one of my pet hates,” Neville told The Times.
“They don’t know how to set up their own bank account, they don’t know what they’re spending their money on and they can’t make their own decisions. Not every player is like that, but some are now totally dependent on agents and advisers.
“For me, life is an education and you learn things as you go through it. I think a footballer should sit down and negotiate with a club, even if his agent is sitting with him. It is in the player’s best interests to be there and see what is going on.
“There are some agents who do a good job looking after players, but there are others who stifle and mollycoddle players. Some agents will come into a player’s life when he is 20, leave his life at 34 and never want to know that player again. Every footballer needs an adviser at some point, but a player doesn’t need to pay between 5 and 15 per cent of his wages to a guy to set up a bank account, buy him a new fridge or ask his club’s chief executive for a pay rise.”
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