Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville believes Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has helped to save the Premier League season. Neville believes the Palace chairman’s comments – firstly in a newspaper column and then on a TV Football Show – were the catalyst for the Premier League’s Project Restart to gather momentum.
Gary Neville said “In my opinion that in the early days I think that there were some really poor examples of leadership, I do think it’s handled the return to play quite well in the last four weeks. I think the big turning point for me was Steve Parish’s article in the Sunday Times for the Premier League, that was the moment where someone who had a profile stood up and he took the big risk that day when at that time there were hundreds and hundreds of people dying every single day, football was not in most people’s minds and he gave what would be a sensible position on why football needed to restart and how it could happen. I thought he was a turning point for the leadership in this virus. I think that it’s easy for us always to point towards the top six clubs in terms of leading in this country, but I think the biggest leadership we have seen being demonstrated from Steve Parish, probably Brighton, maybe Southampton, there are clubs that have really stood up and put their heads above the parapet and lead.”
