Gary Neville admits to Declan Rice he made mistake over West Ham star

Gary Neville has admitted to Declan Rice that he was wrong about which position the West Ham star would end up in.

The 23-year-old is now one of the Premier League 's best central midfielders, and a target for the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea.

Neville, however, was originally convinced that he was a defender by trade, having been labelled as a centre-back in his youth.

But the former United captain has now confessed his incorrect prediction on Rice, giving credit to fellow Sky Sports pundits Jamie Carragher and Jamie Redknapp for their more accurate verdict.

"You say pundits are always right, but three or four years ago, I'll always look at my comments around you and I thought you were a centre-back playing in midfield," Neville said on his YouTube channel, The Overlap.

"Carra never said that, to be fair, neither did Jamie Redknapp. They were always convinced you'd be an absolute top midfield player.

"And I have to say, three years later, they were a lot more right that I am."

While the England international took the compliment, he argued there was some truth in the pundit's opinion and explained how he almost returned to the back line for West Ham in January.

"At the start, you probably were right - I was a centre-back playing in midfield. And you could probably see that," Rice admitted.

"On the ball, my defensive positioning, I was doing so much more work for the team defensively than I was on the ball, that is true, I probably was a centre-back playing in midfield.

"But as time has gone on, the more you play a position, the more confident you get with it. I've always known I've had this ability, it's just confidence and putting it into place, which is what I've been doing this season which is good.