Phil Neville Is keen to take the Everton managers job and gave an interview with the Express on his future plans
“I have so many ambitions,” he said. “I want to run marathons. I have a friend who organises marathons and he says I should do one in Ethiopia one day.
“I want to do triathlons. I want to travel the world, spend more time with my family.
“But that is just a dream. Realistically, if I woke up and I had nothing to go to, that would probably destroy me. I need to work.”
“It is in me,” he said. “I regularly go and watch football games that I am not involved in.
“I have been writing things down for the past five years – talks, manager’s team meetings, training sessions, whatever. You either have that or you don’t.
“There is this preconceived idea that I would follow the likes of Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher and my brother Gary into the media because it’s a really good life. Financially it is good and you can explore other things in your life.
“But football is my life. No one asked me to go and watch Wigan against Swansea the other Tuesday night, but I went because it is what I love doing. I see it in the best managers. Yes, David Moyes works hard, but he works hard at something he loves doing.
“He’s not doing it for money but because there is something inside him that makes him want to do it.
“It’s not an aggravation or a hassle for me. It is something that inspires me.
“That might be rarer nowadays. You look at the managerial statistics in the Championship and it is unbelievable that you can put your life in the hands of some crazy chairman who sacks you after 10 months, and then you become a laughing stock after everything you have worked for your whole life.
“That is turning a lot of players away from going into management. Twenty years ago when players finished, they had to go into coaching or management because, financially, they were probably not prepared. Now players are more in control of their own destiny.
“But they will come back. It will go full cycle. We have to go back towards more English coaches and over the next three or four seasons the Carraghers, Owens, Terrys, Lampards, my brother, Scholes, Butt and Giggs will be involved. The Premier League will be littered with managers of that ilk in four or five years’ time.”
“It is flattering to be linked with the Everton job,” he said. “There is a structure in place where the new man who comes in will not have that much to do.
“I am at the end of my [playing] career and I am looking to get into coaching and management.
“It is just whatever direction the club want to take. It would be a really good job to get. But I also know there are players who have gone into jobs and failed.
“I have prepared. I have prepared for the past five seasons and I have some really nice decisions to make. I am prepared for every eventuality. That is the key line.
“I’ve not reached the end of my career and thought, ‘I know – I’ll be a manager’.”
Neville’s relationship with Moyes is a close one and, having spent his formative years under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, he has no doubts that he has been in a privileged position.
“I played for someone who helped me develop as a player, helped me get into the game and gave me the best grounding that anyone could ever have,” he added. “And then I signed for a manager who allowed me to grow as a player and as a person. I have learned what it takes to be a great manager. There is no secret formula, it is just bloody hard work.
“I pick his [Moyes’] brains constantly. We were out on Sunday night and I was asking him what it is like when your team goes on a night out. Do you set curfews?
“You have to learn these things. He has been unbelievable in the way he has opened up. He has been so honest about everything. He tells you the pitfalls and his strengths. He tells you where he failed. I grill him. He must think sometimes, ‘Give me a break!’
“It’s the same with [Everton assistant manager] Steve Round. I virtually man-mark him. I ask him about measurements for pitches. You go and watch a training session and you think, ‘That looks easy’. But then you think, ‘How big is the pitch to make it work?’
“I have got files for the past three pre-seasons. That is something I can look back on. It is part of learning. If someone came to me now and said, ‘Put a session on for directional play’ I have got it there.”