Gary Neville takes aim at England, and it’s refreshing.

This is why I like Gary Neville as a pundit, because unlike his ex-playing media contemporaries, he doesn’t worry about ruffling feathers or bruising egos. This is Neville in the aftermath of the draw against Montenegro:

“The real issue is that the spine of the team is not good enough, as it stands, to take on Spain, Italy, France or Germany at Euro 2012.

We’re now talking about Rooney possibly missing two games of Euro 2012 when what we should be talking about is the spine of a team that has no mobility and can’t keep the ball.

When I look at it coldly, a team that has John Terry, Gary Cahill, Scott Parker, Gareth Barry, Darren Bent and Rooney in its central positions is nowhere near good enough to take on the major nations such as Spain.

I”m not having a go at individuals; there are some very good players among those names. Collectively, Rooney aside, there is hardly any pace, very little invention and hardly any rotation of positions.”

Thank God, someone said it. Spot on, Gary. Why has it taken so long for a prominent media personality to say what everybody already knew?

The problem is of course, that for every Neville we have ten Alan Shearers, which is obviously ‘disappointing’. But have Sky unearthed a new type of ex-player turned summariser – one that doesn’t just phone it in for the sake of their post-playing pension?

The chances are, that unless you played for or support Manchester United, you don’t like Gary Neville the person. That’s fine, because actually that makes him perfect for the media world – his opinions aren’t inhibited by the need to preserve popularity. Alongside offering some genuinely interesting insights into the game, Neville clearly doesn’t fear the repercussions of his opinions. Think back to Glen Johnson’s tirade against Paul Merson after the latter dared to suggest he wasn’t Carlos Alberto reborn on Soccer Saturday – because that’s what the generic modern pundit has bred, the acceptance of an unwritten rule that ex-players don’t openly criticise those still playing.

Fantastic, because I’ve always hated that. If you want to analyse the game you have to prepared to leave your friends at television studio door – because if you don’t you’re not really offering honest opinions. Football has too many agendas, too many bias’, and too much ego – maybe creating a punditry mould out of Neville is a small step to redressing that.

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