It hasn’t been Gary Neville’s season. Manchester United have fallen a long way short of their standards and even salvaging the campaign by winning the Europa League wouldn’t really do much to take the edge off.
Liverpool winning the Premier League is undoubtedly difficult to take. Neville has navigated the experience in relatively good humour but he certainly isn’t enjoying it.
Continuing their hard-won title celebrations this week, the Reds posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, showing commentary duo Steve Hunter and John Aldridge in action as they talked fans through Sunday’s comfortable win on glory’s doorstep.
At one point Neville, on duty for Sky Sports, beats a hasty retreat from the otherwise jubilant press box.
In between the waves of emoji, some words appeared on social media by way of a reaction from Liverpool fans.
“Inject that into our vein,” posted one highly original blue-tick.
“Gary getting out of dodge is the funniest part of this,” pointed out another.
One fan even provided instructions: “Go straight to 1 min 30 seconds and watch who gets straight off.”
“Absolutely fair play to Gary Neville for how quickly he got out of there,” said one user.
“Quickest I’ve ever seen Gary Neville move,” parped another.
“Oi Gary Neville is killing me,” agreed one fan.
Gary Neville (Image: Getty)
The brand behind Liverpool’s sponsored video post must be thrilled with Neville’s contribution to their reach. Well played.
Eagle-eyed Liverpool fans also noticed that the former Red Devils right-back was rather quieter than usual in the aftermath of their title clincher.
“Ah, so that’s why there wasn’t a Gary Neville podcast this week,” spotted one.
Neville was indeed absent from one or two of the places we might have expected to find him on Sunday.
“It’s common practice for Sky Sports’ co-commentators to rejoin the coverage after full-time and get involved with the post-match discussion,” reported the Daily Express.
“But after [anchor David] Jones asked whether he’d join the panel if Liverpool secured the point they needed against Spurs, Neville made his intentions clear.
“He responded: ‘No. There is no point in me coming down here again. I think the Liverpool fans probably won’t let me get out of the commentary box!'”