Gary Neville has publicly criticized Jose Mourinho and John Murtough for their harsh treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger at Manchester United.
Bastian Schweinsteiger, who joined United in 2015 under Louis van Gaal, disclosed that Mourinho banned him from the senior team’s dressing room and made him train with the U16s after he used personal doctors for an injury.
Neville expressed shock and dismay at these revelations, describing the actions as “illegal” and “embarrassing.”
Schweinsteiger, who moved to Chicago Fire in 2017, also shared regrets over his handling during the team’s 2016 U.S. pre-season tour, which Neville discussed in an interview on, what some regarded as one of the best football podcasts, The Overlap.
“On my birthday, when I walked into Carrington [training ground], John Murtough was there and said that I wasn’t allowed to walk into the dressing room. The coach had said so. No warning, nothing,” Schweinsteiger explained on the football podcast.
“I don’t know [why he told me]. Someone could have told me there [on my first day of training] or explained it to me in a normal way, but okay, I went to the youth dressing room and trained with the U16s.
“Yes, completely [kicked me out of the first team dressing room], so I had to ask him [Murtough] to bring me my cleats and training gear. I asked him who I was training with, and he said there was the U16 team, so I went and trained with the U16s.”
“That’s illegal [treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger]. I was the PFA Union Representative, and you’re not allowed to do that, you can’t dismiss someone like that, it’s constructive dismissal in some ways,” Gary Neville replied.
“It’s probably a few years too late, you should have come and seen me at the time. I’m stunned and embarrassed at what I’m hearing because I always think, players leave clubs and people fall out, but there is a way to do things and a way to behave and act.”
“I was not happy with the way I was treated. I was very sad because I really loved Manchester United, it was the second club in my heart,” Schweinsteiger continued.
“I gave everything when I played, so I was sad how I got treated, but I’m not the person to run to the media and talk about it; I just wanted to focus on football.”
He added: “I don’t think they had the best games [results], the season was tough, so maybe they wanted an impact on the training pitch.
“Later, I got my minutes, but when you see other players playing in your position, you think, ‘I’m better than this guy.’
“We had Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera, Michael Carrick, Morgan Schneiderlin, and Marouane Fellaini – I thought that I wasn’t the last one in that group for that position.”
