The traditional top six English clubs have been showing their worth in recent European competitions and Neville believes it is down to appointing good head coaches.
Manchester City and Chelsea have booked their place in this year’s Champions League final and Manchester United will be playing Villarreal in the showpiece of the Europa League as Arsenal failed to knock out the La Liga side to set up an all English final.
It is the second time in three seasons that two English clubs have contested in the final of the Champions League, after Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur to triumph in Madrid in 2019.
English teams enjoyed enormous success in Europe’s premier club competition between 2005 and 2012, but failed to meet that standard from 2013 to 2017 as the other leagues, particularly La Liga dominated the Champions League.
“We should be proud that at this moment in time English football, the Premier League, is starting to dominate in Europe again,” Neville said on Monday Night Football.
“I was going to Champions League games in that period of 2013-17 and I remember saying to Martin [Tyler] ‘what the hell is going on?’ we were spending all this money and yet La Liga and the Bundesliga were absolutely ripping us apart in Europe.”
“We were the laughing stock in Europe as the Premier League. They were taking loads of money off us for players but then they were still winning and getting to the finals. But now if you look at the last few years we have got it back.”
“The big difference is the managers. We have got absolutely unbelievable managers in this league. Pep Guardiola is a genius. Jurgen Klopp is absolutely outstanding. Tuchel in six months what he has done at Chelsea is out of this world. Pochettino, what he did at Tottenham was an unbelievable coaching performance.”
“I would say that, for me it proves that if we can keep the best managers in the world in this country, we will succeed. It is important for everyone to understand how important the managers are in football.”
