Gary Neville reveals the only two world class players he saw at Manchester United

Jamie Carragher has used Neville’s example of praising Peter Schmeichel to get across his point of how important goalkeepers are to a Premier League title-challenging side

Gary Neville believes that the only two truly world class players who he shared a changing room with at Old Trafford were Cristiano Ronaldo and Peter Schmeichel, according to Jamie Carragher.

The revelation sees Neville overlook a number of big names that have lit up the Premier League over the years, with the likes of Eric Cantona and Ruud van Nistelrooy omitted as well as the entire ‘Class of 92’ of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt as well as his own brother Phil.

The selection of Ronaldo comes as no surprise given the Portuguese forward won his first of five Ballon d’Or awards while at United and has gone on to achieve greatness with Real Madrid in the form of three straight Champions League wins before his summer move to Juventus this year, but putting Schmeichel in that same bracket ahead of other United legends has proven somewhat controversial.

But not for Carragher, who was keen to draw attention towards the lack of praise that the very best goalkeepers get as he heralded current Premier League stoppers Ederson and Alisson for their recent performances.

“Show me a Premier League winning team and I will direct you towards the top class keeper who turned draws into wins and defeats into draws,” Carragher wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

“Ask Manchester United supporters to name the most important signing of the Sir Alex Ferguson era and the most likely response is everything changed at Old Trafford when Eric Cantona joined from Leeds United in 1992.

“I disagree.

“I have always believed the seeds of Ferguson’s glorious reign were planted a year earlier when Peter Schmeichel arrived from Denmark. Schmeichel made the biggest difference overall, keeping 22 clean sheets in the season United ended their title drought.

“Gary Neville once told in me he felt he only ever played with two genuinely world class players in his Manchester United career. One was Cristiano Ronaldo. The other was Schmeichel. That is how fundamental he was to United’s success.”

Gary Neville believes Peter Schmeichel was one of two world class players he played alongside at Manchester United (Getty)

Carragher goes on to point out that behind other great Premier League-winning sides, the likes of Edwin van der Sar and Petr Cech went under the radar yet proved pivotal in the success that those sides had.