“Roberto, Gary Neville, I never… I bet I never thought you’d be interviewed by me…” — it’s fair to say that the former Manchester United full-back has come a long way since his excruciating, stumbling start to life as a sports broadcaster. Yet despite rising to become one of the industry’s leading men, he has never quite managed to shake off his deep-seated dislike of Liverpool, something which shows in his string of poor predictions.
There’s an extensive selection — we’ve made a list of six of his particularly egregious mistakes, and that’s just for starters. But you almost have to respect Neville for steadfastly refusing to learn his lesson.
In his latest predictions, Neville has at last begrudgingly conceded that Liverpool will win the Premier League, with Arne Slot’s side now 15 points clear of Arsenal. But he has been less generous with his forecast in at least one other competition.
Slot is gunning for a remarkable debut treble. He will take on Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final next weekend, but before that will seek to hold on to a slender advantage against PSG at Anfield in order to book a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
When it comes to the Wembley encounter, Neville backed Liverpool through teeth gritted so tightly that it will take a dental professional to unclamp them. But he made it clear who he wants to win:
“It goes without saying who I want to win but not necessarily just because of the rivalry with Liverpool,” said Neville on the Gary Neville Podcast. “It feels years and decades since Newcastle, Spurs, Villa, Everton have won a trophy — imagine the atmosphere if Newcastle did it.
“Liverpool are big favorites – they’re in such great form and look so solid throughout. Hopefully it’s a good game and Newcastle can stay in the game.”
I’m not buying that Neville’s cup final allegiances are not rooted in his Manchester United past, especially as it’s quite difficult to paint a win for the Saudi-backed side as a win for the underdog. But he did concede that Liverpool is likely to be too strong for Newcastle.
However, he also gleefully revealed that he wouldn’t be surprised to see Liverpool exit Europe this week, despite Harvey Elliott’s first-leg heroics. And even if the Reds advance, Neville does not see them claiming Champions League glory.
(Image: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“I’m not quite sure I see them winning it – you can never write them off obviously – but I don’t quite see it,” Neville mused. “It wouldn’t surprise me actually if they went out this week.
“It’s a 50-50 game for me, either team would easily win. PSG are a good side.”
Of course, in the pantheon of Neville predictions, this is far from outrageous. Plenty of Liverpool supporters would echo similar sentiments, and Slot himself certainly isn’t counting any chickens.
Indeed, if the PSG game follows the same pattern as the one in the Parc des Princes, Liverpool will surely be eliminated. Alisson cannot be expected to deliver another superhuman performance.
But it would be a surprise to see the match pan out in a similar fashion to the first leg, if only because this is at Anfield. Since the defeat to Nottingham Forest early in the season, Slot has firmly restored its fortress status, with Liverpool churning out home wins and seldom failing to score fewer than two goals.
Pundits (and indeed PSG) can continue to count out the Anfield factor if they so wish. But this is a Liverpool side romping clear in the Premier League, with its number of defeats in all competitions calculable on one hand — for any other side in this position, it’s inconceivable that Neville would simply conclude that he “doesn’t see it” when it comes to Champions League prospects.
Liverpool will need to be at its very best in order to make Neville look foolish yet again — while it has not had to break a sweat to finish above Manchester United, for example, it will have to play to its full potential to bring a seventh European Cup back to Anfield. But with glory now just six games away, Slot will hope to add a new item to the pundit’s ever-growing stack of failed predictions.
