Neville open to lower-tier switch

Phil Neville has revealed he would consider dropping out of the Premier League if Everton do not extend his contract beyond this season.

Neville has appeared over 500 times in the top flight, but insists there would be nothing embarrassing about playing in the lower leagues.

And he is adamant his top priority is to carry on playing football for as long as his body allows, regardless of the level of competition.

“For me, I want to continue playing as long as possible so I’m not embarrassed to go down the league,” Neville told the Liverpool Echo.

“I think you can still have as much fun playing in the lower leagues as you can in the Premier League.”

The 36-year-old has already begun preparing for life after he hangs up his football boots, however, having accepted an England Under-21 coaching role for the European Championships in Israel.

And he admits he would be tempted by a management role in the lower echelons of the Football League, following in the footsteps of Edgar Davids, who took charge of League Two side Barnet last year.

“I think it’d be good for your experience to coach and manage down there, to go through the types of things that Edgar Davids is going through at the moment because he’s been used to the best things in life and now he’s got to really coach,” Neville said.

“He won’t have 20 balls, he’ll probably have five or six, he won’t have many cones, they’ll be training on a park pitch where there’s maybe dogs running across the training pitch and this is where he’ll have to learn his trade again.”