46. Gary Neville

Signed from: Youth team
Debut: 0-0 draw vs Torpedo Moscow (UEFA Cup tie, as a sub), September 16th 1992
League Record: 380 games (+20 as sub), 5 goals
Sold to: Retired, January 2011

After Ryan Giggs, the second of the famous 1992 FA Youth Cup winning team to make the first team. There’s a fair few more to come…

For his debut, the first leg at Old Trafford, he was probably only thrown in due to the then-foreigner rule severely limiting our options: even Neil Webb, Danny Wallace and Lee Martin got games in these two ties, which ended with us being beaten on penalties in the second leg in Moscow. That game, due to being in Russia, was on fairly early on a weekday afternoon and I remember coming home from school to catch most of it. I think Bruce and Pallister missed the vital pens, though why Pally was taking one is lost to the mists of time.

After that, he spent most the next two years learning his trade in the reserves before taking his chance when Paul Parker’s injury problems saw him drop out of contention. He impressed enough to get into Terry Venables’ England team within a few months of establishing himself, and looked impressive at the 1996 European Championships.

Around this time, he’d formed a superb partnership on the right flank with our next entry that benefited club and country. Nev also had a knack for hurling a throw-in a considerable distance, which proved useful. What he never seemed to have was much respect from fans of other teams: he was certainly the subject of much piss-taking due to his ultra-serious nature. It was hard to imagine Gary out on the tiles on a Saturday night, knocking back £100 cocktails and copping off with random ladies.

However, there's not been many other players as committed to the Red cause than him and nobody in the team enjoyed success more than him. Winning against Liverpool usually brought this out to the hilt and his enjoyment at a late winner against the old enemy cost him a hefty fine from the FA, which he may have felt was worth it anyways.

At the end, his legs had well and truly gone and in 2010/11 he was lucky to stay on the pitch in games at Stoke and West Brom after some bad tackles. The latter game also saw him somehow avoid giving away a penalty, a moment that had Baggies fans justifiably enraged. Credit to the man, he knew the game was up and announced his retirement from playing within days. Since then, he’s become an articulate pundit for Sky Sports, a job he shares after he strangely went to work on the coaching team for England.