Gary Neville, the unsung right-back

Manchester United had a lot of great players in the 1990s and 2000s who helped with the club's massive success and accomplishments, which is why is not surprising to see some unsung heroes from that period. Sure, some people like to bring players such as Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher, or even Park Ji-Sung as underrated players but right-back Gary Neville should be up there in this discussion.

Neville has been often undermined because of his role as a pundit and comments made by people that are often meant to say that he was never that good or that his legacy mostly relied on him winning a lot of trophies with United and not because of his quality. This is very unfair because it seems to suggest that Neville was simply at the right place at the right time, which undermines his own achievements as a player.

There are several arguments that justify Gary Neville's legacy as a Manchester United legend and are the following reasons:

Strong leadership qualities

Not a lot of players out there are born leaders. Some grow into the role and others never embrace leadership positions. In that regard, Gary Neville is a very interesting example because he was a born leader and that was an element that manager Sir Alex Ferguson found very important for his side.

Neville led the United Under-21s side when he was just 16 years of age, which is an insane feat when thinking about it. He was a player who was born to lead and guide other players, which is something that blossomed a few years down the line when he became a veteran for the senior team.

During the last five years of his career, right until he retired in 2011, Neville was Manchester United's captain, which is saying a lot considering all the different types of leadership there were at the club at the time. And he was very helpful in guiding younger players as Ferguson was revamping the side, which is something that a lot of people tend to undermine.

Consistency

Writing about Gary Neville's Manchester United career would be rather boring. Mainly because he was so consistent throughout his time there that there aren't a lot of interesting detours or deviations in his journey. This is something that perhaps affected his legacy: the fact there aren't a lot of interesting moments in his career because he did his job well.

In many ways, this is something that Neville shared with Ferguson's other starting fullback in the 90s, Denis Irwin. He was also quite consistent and kept a low profile, which is something that doesn't help if people want to give them a lot more recognition. Personality sells a lot and while Gary and Denis were not the most charismatic of players, they were very good and reliable footballers.

That is one big reason why Ferguson kept pushing with Gary, even if he was never the best in his position: he was reliable. The Scottish manager always bet on having a strong core of reliable players because he knew they were the ones who were going to maintain a degree of balance on the side as they faced uncertainty or any particular challenges.

Consistency, even though is a very positive trait, can often make a lot of players quite boring and uninteresting. People tend to like the ups and downs. In that regard, Gary Neville is boring but is a very useful kind of boring, which needs to be taken into account.

He was actually quite good

The thing about the discourse surrounding Gary Neville is that he was actually a very good right-back. Not just for English football standards, but also for the standards of Manchester United as a whole. The issue is that he was never the flashiest or most aesthetically appealing of fullbacks, which is something that played a huge role in his legacy.

There is no denying that Neville was never going to be as prolific or naturally gifted as Javier Zanetti or Cafu when it came to right-backs but he was a very decent passer, formed a great tandem on the right side with David Beckham, and was a very reliable defender. All of these aspects made him a right-back who was quite dependable and his aforementioned leadership skills were also quite prominent.

The biggest sign of Gary being very good is Ferguson himself. The former Aberdeen manager is known for having a lot of high standards so he wasn't going to keep a player around if he wasn't good enough. Heck, players like Jaap Stam were sold the moment Sir Alex thought he was starting to decline, which is something worth taking into account because he never did that with Gary Neville.

Manchester United were the strongest football club in England during Gary's time at the team and he kept up with a lot of amazing players in that period. That is saying a lot because it shows that he earned his right to be there, which is something that not a lot of players can say. There are a lot of examples of footballers, naturally gifted players, who failed at Manchester United and Neville still managed to make a lasting legacy for himself.

There are a lot of discourses online these days surrounding the legacies of players who retired a long time ago and Gary Neville's situation is no different. However, he proved time and time again that he earned his place as a Manchester United legend and one of the best right-backs in English football history.