Gary Neville’s 14 commandments on how to make it as a footballer

5. Analyse and assess your own performance — be your own coach. 6. Have a strong work ethic — work harder than anyone else and you’ll overtake players with far more talent than you have. 7. Give the profession all that you have got, and you’ll have no regrets. 8. You have to have character and personality to play for Manchester United which you can develop over time. 9. Be a risk taker because it is a different kind of leadership. 10. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin, and you have to deal emotionally with both experiences. Remember that if you win or lose you can still have that Chinese on a Saturday night — keep things in perspective. 11. Learn more about yourself and what works for you. 12. Don’t leave anything to chance. 13. There are different routes to reach the top and very few players go ‘route one’ — like [Ryan] Giggs or [Wayne] Rooney. The challenge for you is to find the right pathway because we’re all different. 14. The ability to deal/cope with injuries is vital and should be approached with a strong mentality. See injury as an opportunity to develop body strength, and ‘reset’ your mind (refresh) for the various challenges ahead. There are some valuable nuggets of wisdom in there, I'm sure you'll agree.