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When the pair were squaring up during their playing days, not many people would have predicted that Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher would strike up a strong bromance in retirement.
Neville and Carragher played for each of the two biggest clubs in England, so it stands to reason that they didn't see eye to eye when they came up against each other on the field. After hanging their boots up, both men moved into punditry, with Neville starting with Sky Sports in 2011, and Carragher following him two years later.
It didn't take long for Carragher to deliver a putdown to Neville, coming out with the famous "no one wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville" line on his Monday Night Football debut.
"Two things for a full-back, you're either a failed winger or a failed center-back," Carragher said ahead of a game between Swansea City and Liverpool, before Neville responded: "Thanks for that! I was neither... I just failed!"
Clarifying his comment, Carragher said: "You (Neville) grew up as a center-back! You were a center-back to start. No one wants to be a full-back as a kid – no one wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville."
The pair have remained close – on screen, at least – for over a decade since, and seem fond of each other despite the time they spent as rivals on the field.
A few years ago, Neville recalled being asked by the Sky producers about the possibility of Carragher joining the Monday Night Football team, which at the time seemed like a risk due to the success of the show with just Neville as its main pundit.
"After a few months, I remember telling the producer at the time that we have to make sure the show evolves otherwise it will get stale and I’ll get stale," Neville told Sports Joe. "We couldn’t let that happen.
"I remember I was in Norway at an event for United supporters when the call came through from the producer.
He said, 'Listen, Jamie Carragher has been heavily courted by another TV station, we want him at Sky, but he’s told us that he’ll only be interested if it’s prominent shows. He wants to do stuff like MNF.'
"I replied that it was absolutely the right thing to bring him over.
"A lot of people at Sky thought it was a massive risk because the show was successful and they were resistant to change, but I was a supporter of the move.
"If I said, ‘No way, I’m not working with him’ - it would have had a big influence, but I was 100 percent up for it.
"When Jamie came in, it was a risk because you don’t know how the chemistry is going to be, how the public are going to receive it, but it was obvious from early on it would work with some of the comments."
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