Gary Neville says he was toughened up by Peter Schmeichel during his early years in the Manchester United first-team.
Having been on the fringes of the team at the start of the decade, the full-back broke into the senior side at Old Trafford in the mid-1990s when he replaced long-serving right-back Paul Parker.
England international Parker had been part of a successful defence which kick-started the trophy-laden era under Sir Alex Ferguson, and Schmeichel seemingly had concerns that Neville was up to the task of replacing him.
"The one that was hardest with me was Peter Schmeichel, he was brutal with me in that first year or two," Neville told Sky Sports' The Football Show on Thursday.
"Schmeichel was constant, every single day in training at me.
"He told me on the team day out, he didn’t think I was capable of replacing Paul Parker, nowhere near as good as Parker. It was maybe true as Parker was a very good defender.
"That back four of [Denis] Irwin, [Steve] Bruce, [Gary] Pallister and Parker had played two or three years and kept clean sheets. I was the first player to break into it.
"Schmeichel saw me as a risk and I was a risk in some ways. I didn’t see it as tough love at the time, I saw it as being brutal but it did toughen me up eventually.
"I realised the team wanted to win."
Neville added that it was Bruce who helped convince him that he was good enough.
'He played on the right hand side of the defence, I was right back when Paul Parker was injured. Parker was a brilliant defender but unfortunately he had an ankle problem so I got a chance," he said.
'Brucey really looked after me on that right hand side, he talked to me through the game. He never went quiet on me.
'That is one of the things he taught me about being a footballer, being a defender. Rio Ferdinand was like that as well. He used to say: "Never go quiet on me, we never went quiet on each other during the game".
