Phil Neville’s leadership summed up as Jermaine Beckford shares ‘amazing’ advice after Everton move

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Former Toffees striker Jermaine Beckford has opened up on Phil Neville’s leadership in the Everton dressing room.

Everton veteran Seamus Coleman has earned deserved praise in recent days.

Coleman has helped the Republic of Ireland keep their World Cup dream alive at the age of 37.

The right-back will go down as an outstanding Everton captain, just like Phil Jagielka and Phil Neville before him.

Neville served as Everton captain for six years in David Moyes’ first spell in charge, and his leadership has now been praised.

Jermaine Beckford hails former Everton captain Phil Neville

Former Everton striker Jermaine Beckford has spoken to Under the Cosh about his time at Goodison Park.

Beckford was asked about Neville, who served as Everton skipper in the striker’s only season at the club.

Beckford noted that Neville is a ‘cool guy’ with a dry sense of humour, but went on to praise his leadership.

After making the jump from League One to the Premier League, Neville quizzed Beckford on how he was preparing himself for top-flight action.

Neville wasn’t impressed with Beckford’s answer and immediately offered recommendations on everything from eating to sleeping.

This might sound overwhelming, but this is exactly how Neville was able to enjoy a long and storied career at the top.

Beckford thought Neville’s advice was ‘amazing’, praising the former Everton star as a ‘great leader’.

“He’s a cool guy,” said Beckford. “He was funny in a dry sense. He’s a great leader. Great, great leader. He was one of those people that said, “How do you recover? What are you putting in your body to recover?” I said to him, you know, I’m eating this, that, and the other, and he said, ‘What? No. Recover properly. This is what you need to do. You need to be eating this, this, and this at this time, this time, this time, and don’t eat X amount of hours before you go to bed because it gives your body the perfect amount of time to digest all the food so you’re able to get a perfect night’s sleep’.

“And in terms of sleep, you need to make sure you’re sleeping for eight, nine, 10 hours minimum, but every hour before midnight you go to sleep, technically counts as one and a half to two hours of extra rest on your body.

“So, you know, when you’ve got people like that feeding you that sort of information, it’s amazing. That’s amazing,” he added.

How is Phil Neville faring as a manager?

Neville retired at the end of the 2012-13 season and immediately followed Moyes to Manchester United as a coach.

Neville left Old Trafford just a year later and went on to become a coach under Nuno Espirito Santo at Valencia in 2015.

Gary Neville infamously came in as Valencia boss, with Phil’s first managerial opportunity coming in charge of the England women’s national team in 2018.

Neville won 19 of his 35 games in charge, but a torrid run of form in 2020 meant he departed in 2021.

David Beckham brought Neville to Inter Miami, but he departed two-and-a-half years later with 42 defeats in 90 games.

Now in charge of Portland Timbers, Neville’s record after two years stands at 29 wins, 24 draws and 28 defeats in 81 games.

The jury is still out on Neville as a manager, but it’s clear that he was a major force in the Everton dressing room before hanging up his boots.