Gary Neville starts new job for Man Utd days after Sir Alex Ferguson axe

Manchester United hit the headlines after ending Sir Alex Ferguson's ambassadorial contract, but some of the club's former players continue to represent them elsewhere

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has been on freelance ambassador duties for the club, just days after news broke that former manager Sir Alex Ferguson's full-time ambassadorial contract was coming to an end.

Ferguson has been on a deal worth millions of pounds per year, with the Treble-winning manager's successes recognised by the club. However, new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been imposing a number of cost-cutting measures since taking over footballing affairs and the latest step has been to cut that expensive contract.

A number of former United players have other ambassadorial arrangements, with differing responsibilities. Neville, who is part of the club's stadium taskforce as Ratcliffe looks into proposals for a 'Wembley of the North', recently represented the club in India.

The 49-year-old appeared on a panel at the Minerva academy in Mohali. He travelled to India for the Apollo Tyres flagship grassroots football programme, appearing as part of the 'United We Play' programme which the tyre company says is designed "to enable our next-generation players to reach their optimum performance by unlocking their potential".

As reported by The Sun, Neville's appearance in India was in a freelance capacity. It is one of a number of responsibilities held by the former England international, who is also regularly seen on broadcast duty in the UK and United States, and a photo of the event shows him speaking against a backdrop of event logos and the Manchester United badge.

Ferguson, meanwhile, spent Saturday away from Old Trafford after the end of his ambassadorial contract was made public. He watched his former club Aberdeen in action at Parkhead, where the Dons came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Celtic.

It was also reported that Ferguson - who led the club to all of their Premier League title wins - had been banned from United's dressing room. In his absence, sections of the home crowd showed their support for the 82-year-old.

Can you see Gary Neville taking on more ambassadorial duties? Have your say in the comments section

United themselves needed to come from behind on Saturday. For a second season in a row, they trailed 1-0 at home to Brentford at half-time, only to end up as 2-1 winners.

"We defend very well as a team, we have four clean sheets in the Premier League and it shows the organisation is very good," manager Erik ten Hag said after the victory. "We've created lots of chances, coming into the right spots, but the conversion was not of the level we can expect. Today, we did everything right and you see we have players who can finish high-quality chances.

"In the second half, there were slight changes, we fill the pockets and have better intensity for the counter-press. Also, the first half wasn't bad, and we had some good moments, and some good chances, but didn't score. In the second half, we scored and everyone is happy."

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