Sickly feeling over Europa League final - Neville

Gary Neville made 602 Manchester United appearances during a 19-year career with the club. He won 17 major honours, including eight Premier League titles

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville says he has a "sickly feeling" in his stomach about his old club's Europa League final with Tottenham on 21 May.

United will face Spurs in Bilbao in a meeting of the Premier League's major underachievers knowing victory will come with the added bonus of a place in next season's Champions League.

Neville calls the clash "huge" and says the "consequences of losing" are massive.

And, while he is confident about the outcome, which would generate around £100m for United in additional income, his defensive mentality means he finds it hard to look forward with excitement.

"Roy Keane called it a great game the other day," he said. "That is what Roy would think.

"My mentality is different. I was a right-back. You know the only thing you can do is lose your team the game. Unless you are Trent Alexander-Arnold, you are unlikely to win your team a game as a right-back.

"It is a huge game. The consequences are massive. I have a sickly feeling in my stomach about this game as a United fan purely because of what is at stake.

"But I am confident. Manchester United have an uncanny knack, even in difficult times and bad times - and this has been a really bad season - of picking up trophies.

Neville pointed out United have won trophies under Erik ten Hag, Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal in the past 10 years despite not having won the Premier League title since 2012-13.

"That is not a bad habit to have as a football club," he added.

"They still get to finals and do things even though the league form has been awful - and it has been a terrible season."

Neville didn't want to feel like 'stranger' at Salford

Neville was speaking to BBC Sport from Salford City's Moor Lane ground a day after the League Two outfit announced a new ownership structure that will see only the 50-year-old and long-time friend David Beckham remain as minority shareholders from the famed 'Class of 92' who bought the club in 2014.

Salford announced themselves with a succession of fly-on-the-wall documentary series that charted their remarkable progress from the eighth tier of the English pyramid into the Football League.

It was a similar concept to the one employed more recently by Wrexham's Hollywood owners.

Yet, while Salford have remained in League Two since 2019 and blew their latest chance of making the play-offs on 3 May when they failed to get the win they needed at already-relegated Carlisle, Wrexham have gone past them and are now celebrating promotion to the Championship.

Local rivals Stockport County have also surged past them, with Neville admitting Salford's recent recruitment has not been good enough.

"We accept in the last five years, we have not achieved the success on the pitch we should have," he said. "That is a fact.

"There is no getting away from that."

It has become apparent that not only were 'Class of 92' members reaching the end of the investment they were prepared to make, Singapore businessman and Valencia owner Peter Lim was reaching the same conclusion.

Lim bankrolled the club through losses of £28m over the past 11 years, having determined the 'Class of 92' should be responsible for the operation of the Moor Lane outfit.

Knowing this season would be Lim's last, Neville and Beckham have put together a consortium of nine prominent investors, across a range of industries, having been put off by initial talks over a potential takeover that left the England defender concerned about the reputational damage it might cause.

"This is a 'protecting our reputation' play," Neville said.

"A potential multi-club partner came forward but I realised we were going to be used as a machine to pass players around.

"I thought 'nah' that is not for me. I am not going to watch Salford City for the next five years servicing other clubs with players.

"I felt like I was going to become a slave to another majority owner and have to do what they wanted me to do. I was going to be coming to this ground and almost feel like a stranger in my own house.

"I didn't want that. I can't feel like that at this point in my life."

Neville backs football regulator

Neville is talking about creating a 'sustainable' club and is committed to keeping ticket prices amongst the lowest in England.

How those two dynamics can create tangible on-pitch success given Salford's fan base is one of the smallest in the EFL is not clear.

However, he remains a passionate advocate of the independent football regulator.

"Let's be clear," he said. "Change has been put in place.

"The EFL owners and directors' test is a lot more rigorous than it was eight years ago when Bury went bust.

"But at this moment in time, the Premier League could be a little bit more kind and generous to the rest of the pyramid.

"It is nothing to do with Salford City. The extra money we would get would be into the few hundreds of thousands."

Neville added that the gulf between the Championship and the Premier League is "getting bigger" with this the second season in a row the three promoted teams have been relegated.

"We are now seeing a situation, which is dangerous, where the same three teams are going up and down," added Neville.

"That is because of the parachute payments. There are almost cliff edges being created all the way through football and I am not a fan of it."