Don’t let Jose get off to flier

Posted Friday, July 12, 2013 by The Sun

GARY NEVILLE has warned David Moyes not to give Jose Mourinho a head start in the title race

The ex-Manchester United star believes Chelsea will provide the biggest threat to Moyesy’s hopes of starting his Old Trafford reign by holding on to the league crown.

United are renowned as being slow starters. Former boss Alex Ferguson always used to say his team did not kick into gear until the Christmas period, but they host Mourinho’s Blues as early as the second game of the new season on

Monday, August 26.
Sky Sports pundit Neville won eight titles in his 19-year United career before retiring in 2011.

He insisted: “You wouldn’t want to fall too far behind a Mourinho team because they would have the nerve to withstand the pressure.”

Neville, now 38, speaks from bitter experience. He was in the United defence when Mourinho started his first spell as Chelsea boss in the summer of 2004.

The Portuguese coach then celebrated his first season in charge by helping them to their first title for 50 years.

Chelsea retained the crown the following season before finishing runners-up to United in 2007.

Neville added: “When he first came in, in 2004-05, we played against him on the first day.

“We’d had the experience the year before when he’d charged down the touchline and gone on to pick up the European Cup with Porto. He’d already made a name for himself. But that first season, he had an absolutely brilliant team at Chelsea.

“Make no mistake about that — Robben, Duff, Drogba, Essien, Makelele, Lampard, Gallas, Carvalho, Terry, Ferreira...

“I always think when you can name a team, you know you’ve got a great team. That was a fine side — power, strength across midfield, so difficult to play against.

“From our point of view at United, it was probably our leanest period in not winning the league from 2004-07. Going back there now, Mourinho’s got a greater challenge, but Chelsea are on the up. Everyone could see that at the end of last season.

“They won the Champions League the year before, won a trophy last season, finished strongly in the league. They’re going to be a huge threat.

“Where we lost out to Mourinho teams at United in those early years was we left ourselves too much to do.

“We weren’t slow starters but we weren’t at our peak form September to December. We got into our stride in January, February, March and on.

“The problem in the Mourinho years was we were too far behind to mount a challenge. So the critical thing this time will be to make sure you stay in contention.”

Moyes and his United stars kick off their pre-season in Thailand this weekend. And Neville expects him to strengthen his midfield.

He added: “I’m pretty certain it’s got to be an area David Moyes will be looking at because of Paul Scholes’ retirement and the heavy reliance on Michael Carrick to play all the games he did.

“If Moyes gets a couple of injuries, particularly to someone like Carrick or Tom Cleverley, he would be very light.”