DÉJÀ VU

Last updated : 18 August 2006 By Editor

Neville again, insisting we need a good start. From the MEN:

“Everybody wants the season to start because we're desperate to achieve something with United. We've got a good group of players but we've really got to start the season well. That's where I think we've struggled over the last two seasons.

“We've not hit the ground running. There will be 75,000 people at Old Trafford when we start against Fulham and we need to put on a performance and get a good result.

“I'm available for selection. That's something that the manager will decide but I'm delighted to get some football under my belt.

“It's been a frustrating pre-season for me, having not played any football. But I was delighted that, having not played a game, I was named in the England squad by the new manager.

“To get 80 minutes under my belt against Greece was something that I didn't expect at the end of last week, so I was delighted with that as well.”

Elsewhere Neville is quoted:

“We always protect our own. Right the way back to David Beckham coming back from a tournament, my brother in 2000, it has always been the case where United will protect its own players. It happened again this summer with Cristiano and Wayne, but he is at the right place and he'll be protected by the manager, who is brilliant at doing that.

“The players will never have any problem. What happens in an international game has got nothing to do with what happens at Manchester United.”

On the league:

“That's the trophy we want this season. We obviously have ambitions to do well in the other trophies but we have always said the bread and butter is the Premier League. We have underachieved the last three years. We have to be winning championships."

On Ruud:

“Players do leave the club, it happens. It's happened over the past 10 or 12 years. Ruud had a great goalscoring record but time moves on and we've got really good young forwards, Alan Smith, Wayne Rooney, Giuseppe Rossi and obviously Louis Saha. And then there's other players who can play there as well like Scholesy and Giggsy. Ruud starts a new career somewhere else and Manchester United keep going. That's the way it's always been.”