7 December 2005
Gary Neville Exclusive
Gary Neville speaks to TheFA.com's Dan Freedman about his desire to win back his England shirt from Luke Young.

With Manchester United disappointingly knocked out of Europe on Wednesday night, Gary Neville has even more incentive to win back his England place.

However, he admits that Luke Young, who has filled in admirably in Neville's absence, will be difficult to budge.

"I thought he did very well," Gary said of Luke’s contribution in England’s last five games, all of which he started.

"It can be difficult coming together with a group of players that you’ve never played with before. The expectation level, pressure and build-up to [England] games is a completely different level to even the biggest club situation.

"I thought he handled himself very well and played very well in the games too. He’s gone from not being in the squad the last time I was in it – against Denmark – to a position where he’ll now have aspirations of playing for England in the World Cup."

Neville has been an automatic choice for a succession of England managers, starting with Terry Venables ten years ago and he admits he can see similarities with the way in which Young has now burst onto the scene.

"If you take your opportunity, you never know what can come your way," he explained.

"That’s what happened with me ten years ago, before Euro ’96. Paul Parker was injured and Rob Jones, who was absolutely flying for Liverpool at that time, suffered a real serious run of injuries and I benefited from that."

The World Cup itself may still be five months away but Neville insists the country should already be celebrating.

"People do forget that we haven’t qualified for some of the World Cups in the last 20 or 30 years, so we shouldn’t take it for granted that we should be there," he said.

"So let’s celebrate and enjoy the fact that we are going to be there."

TheFA.com will bring you all the news and exclusive reaction from the World Cup draw on Friday night.