Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher admit fears of getting dropped by Sky Sports

Popular pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have admitted fears of getting axed by Sky Sports ahead of the 23/24 season.

Back in June, it was reported that Sky removed half of their football reporting team as they aimed to cut costs.

In addition, iconic names such as Geoff Shreeves, Jeff Stelling and Martin Tyler all left the broadcaster during the off-season.

Former Manchester United defender Neville said: “I don't really think about how long it's been. But it is hard, you know. It's not playing football, it's not being a manager, but anyone who looks at it and thinks, 'Oh, they're just on television, talking about football'... well, yeah, OK.

“But there are thousands of jobs all over the world now doing this, so to stay at Sky, the Premier League rights-holders in this country, and on shows like Super Sunday and Monday Night Football, the demands are high.

“To stay there for several years is an achievement because it's probably a gig that most people would want. If you think of the top gigs in football punditry, there's only three or four.”

He added: “Working on major tournaments, Match of the Day, Monday Night Football – they're the pinnacle of football broadcasting.

“We know it will be taken away from us the minute it doesn't work any more, so we're very conscious of making sure we change things all of the time.”

Carragher echoed Neville’s words, he said: “Yeah, we know what viewers think because we're viewers ourselves, and you don't want to watch exactly the same thing every single season.

“I don't want to do that and I don't think Gary does. We always want new ideas, different guests, different formats.”

The ex-Liverpool man continued: “Friday Night Football, which we've done for the last three or four years, was a good example: the format was completely different to the other shows that we do.”