A coach once told me there are four factors that determine a players performance: his tactical awareness, his physical condition, his technical ability and his mental strength. – Gary Neville
I would have been about seven years old when the formative years of my competitive football education began. I was playing in the local leagues around Manchester, playing against lads from tough areas who had been taught they had to fight for everything. – Gary Neville
I developed a mechanism so that whatever mistakes I made, I would bounce straight back. Whatever was happening off the pitch, I could put it to one side and maintain my form. Call it mental resilience or a strong mind, but that is what we mean when we talk about experience in a football team. – Gary Neville
It is one of my pet hates when I see players who have agents who do everything for them. They dont know how to set up their own bank accounts, they dont know what they are spending their money on and they cant make their own decisions. – Gary Neville
Leaves are light, and useless, and idle, and wavering, and changeable; they even dance; and yet God in his wisdom has made them a part of oaks. And in so doing he has given us a lesson, not to deny the stout-heartedness within because we see the lightsomeness without. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers