Gary Neville makes surprise move to BBC show

Gary Neville is joining Dragons' Den.

The former footballer and businessman is right back in the limelight after signing up to the programme as a guest dragon for the upcoming series.

It’s a surprise, but then again should it be? He’s been speaking an awful lot of business mumbo jumbo recently, talking like someone addicted to the ‘grindset’ and describing his “mini-retirements” that the rest of us would call holidays.

Neville has entered into a number of different ventures since returning from football in 2011. He co-owns Salford City football club, as well as a hotel and a hospitality company.

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Fashion designer and entrepreneur Emma Grede will also join the series as a guest dragon, alongside regulars Steven Bartlett, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies.

Speaking about joining the programme, Neville said: “I am excited to join the Dragons, and to meet the entrepreneurs brave enough to face us in the Den.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

"I hope my personal journey shows that you can take the experiences you’ve had in one part of your career and use them to do something entirely different and make it a success."

"Business is all about managing people and managing yourself and I’m looking forward to sharing my experience to help the entrepreneurs we’ll meet in the Den reach their potential,” the 48-year-old went on to say.

Look out for Neville on the programme next year.

It comes after Neville claimed weird things have been happening to him since he started criticising the Conservatives a couple of years ago, then led by Boris Johnson.

Neville will join the regular dragons next seriesBBC

The football pundit told The Guardian about all the things that happened to him during this period and even revealed that he had freedom of information requests put in against him.

“While he was prime minister, I felt we were in real danger. All my life, I’ve been in teams where you look after one another. This lot don’t think that way. They’re in it for themselves and on the take,” he said.

"It’s damaging our country, our integrity, our international standing. We’re a laughing stock. Johnson has got to be expelled from British politics for good. So do all his cronies who enabled him.

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