Gary Neville's performance as a TV analyst has been drawing praise from football fans for years now, but almost none has been as glowing as the compliments paid by his former host Ed Chamberlin.
The ITV horse racing correspondent joined Adrian and Eoin on this morning's OTB:AM to discuss Irish racing and the country's dominance over England at recent Cheltenham festivals, but not before he praised Gary Neville's broadcasting having worked with the former Man United defender for years on Monday Night Football.
Chamberlin said that despite what viewers might think, the show didn't simply come together, it was the end result of hours of work that he says Gary Neville was at the helm of.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say Gary Neville was absolutely at the heart of it. If you know Gary, he wants to be Prime Minister, he wants to be everything. He directed, he produced, he would have presented if he could".
"He was incredibly hands-on. People used to think, we used go on air at seven o'clock, and my friends used to think he'd turn up at six o'clock and just talk about football, but what went into that show was unbelievable".
"You'd talk all week, we had a Whatsapp group going, discussing ideas, Gary very much at the forefront to start with, then obviously Jamie(Carragher) came on board after a couple of years. Those guys were massively involved".
Chamberlin went on to praise how comfortable Neville was on camera, and claimed that the former Valencia manager never even had to reference any notes during the broadcast or the rehearsals.
"You'd be talking football and tactics, and planning the show, and we'd rehearse all afternoon from sort of two until four to get it right, and Gary Neville never had any note, he was like Rain Man, he remembered everything".
"I'd have my notes, and my iPad, and everything like that, but Gary never had a note, a phenomenon. And I think it's fair to say that he changed football punditry with his honesty and his in-depth analysis. Even racing is affected by that now, you can't go on a show in any sport now and go through the motions, you've got to tell people at home something they don't know and be innovative, and I think he changed that single-handedly".
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