8 of Gary Neville’s most scathing Man Utd rants: ‘Spineless’, ‘Disgusting’, ‘Whingebags’…
We’re getting an acute sense of deja vu these days, with Gary Neville slowly morphing into Mark Goldbridge as he treats Sky Sports audiences to a series of impassioned rants in response to Manchester United’s latest embarrassing defeat.
The former Manchester United right-back has made a habit of sounding incensed during televised matches before giving more ‘considered’ thoughts in the post-match analysis.
Here are eight of Neville’s most memorable rants about his old club.
Paul Pogba
“You do one as well!” was Neville’s entry into Paul Pogba’s notorious ‘caption competition’ back in December 2018, when the French World Cup winner posted a smirking picture in the immediate aftermath of Jose Mourinho’s sacking.
Pogba’s team tried to explain it as a misfortunately timed scheduled promotional tweet, but Neville wasn’t buying it.
“There is probably a high level of dislike there, but Jose Mourinho lost his job this morning and Paul Pogba and his people put that post out – don’t fall for this coincidence scheduled tweet nonsense, it’s garbage, absolute garbage,” Neville responded.
“I do believe that dancing on the grave of the manager who has just been sacked is out of order. Paul Pogba, there is no doubt, has fallen out with the manager. He doesn’t believe in him, he doesn’t like him, he doesn’t think he’s a good coach probably, and vice-versa.”
Tottenham
No, not the latest big Spurs win at Old Trafford. We’re kicking things off by going back to October 2020, the start of the lockdown season, when Manchester United suffered a 6-1 shellacking at the hands of their former boss Jose Mourinho.
“There is no excuse for those players who were out on that pitch today, they were absolutely pathetic,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“Their body language was terrible, it was spiritless and spineless.
“When you’ve got a squad that lacks resilience and know-how to win games, the off-the-pitch stuff with Harry Maguire and Mason Greenwood, the darkness surrounding recruitment and not getting players when Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham are signing players, the minute Spurs went two goals up it was almost as if all those negative thoughts came and drained every bit of confidence out of them.
“It’s not right, but that is what happened.”
READ NEXT: 10 unbelievable, shocking stats from Spurs’ record-breaking 3-0 mauling of Man Utd
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Man Utd player to be sent off in the Premier League?
Liverpool
“Can I go with them?” Neville quipped from the Old Trafford gantry as he watched a mass exodus from United supporters during the infamous 5-0 home defeat to rivals Liverpool in October 2021.
“It’s been coming for five, six weeks. This is what Manchester United’s performance levels have been like all season. As soon as they’ve come up against a good team, they’ve been torn to shreds and it’s told them exactly where they are at. This is as bad as it gets. It’s the nature of the performance. They have capitulated.
“They’ve lost everything today – discipline, organisation. But what stands out in my mind is their organisation around the press. Finding the trigger, not getting there half-hearted.
“City can press, Liverpool can press. Manchester United are kidding themselves today that they are a pressing team. They are all over the place.
“The manager and his coaching staff have to take the blame for the pressing game today. Why would you do that? They are not a pressing team. They haven’t got it in them.
Liverpool (again)
“Man Utd were a million miles away from that Liverpool team in every department. On and off the pitch. It was a sobering evening,” Neville responded when Jurgen Klopp’s Reds inflicted a 4-0 defeat on United at Anfield later in the 2021-22 campaign, completing an aggregate 9-0 humiliation that season.
“We expected it. Not one Man Utd fan came here with any hope whatsoever. That team has got nothing.
“There are some decent players out on that pitch and some talent. I cannot explain how it’s gone from what would be slightly promising at the end of last season finishing second – I know they lost in the Europa League final which was a bad one – to the point where we are today which is an all-time low in my 42 years of watching United. I’ve never seen it as bad as that.
“I’ve never seen a Man Utd team wilt and be as flaky in a game of football in my 40 years.”
READ: 7 Gary Neville opinions that have aged like milk: Messi, Ronaldo, Liverpool & Man Utd’s midfields…
Brentford
Neville thought United’s 4-0 defeat to Liverpool was as low as his former club could fall, but only a few short months later did they plumb new depths, with Erik ten Hag kicking off his tenure with a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton followed by a disastrous 4-0 defeat at Brentford.
“These players have proved under three different managers now that they don’t work as hard as the teams they are playing against,” Neville reacted on Sky Sports.
“How long have we been saying in football that hard work will beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
“That Manchester United team doesn’t run hard enough, they don’t run fast enough. They are absolutely drained of all confidence.
“They are struggling badly and they have been now for 12 months. They’ve not being helped and maybe some would say they don’t deserve help, they’ve got to help, themselves.”
“Today was a new low and it seems that continually Manchester United can surpass their previous lows. And where and when is the lowest low going to come because the reality of it is, this is really, really bad.”
Bruno Fernandes
Neville actually kept a relatively level head during United’s 7-0 loss to Liverpool in March 2023, unlike the two heavy defeats they suffered a couple of seasons prior.
Ten Hag’s men had actually bounced back from their slow start, ending a six-year trophy drought with the League Cup, while the 7-0 at Anfield was something of a freak outlier in terms of both teams’ form at the time.
United actually finished ahead of Liverpool that year, qualifying for the Champions League at their expense.
Liverpool “didn’t even play that well” Neville perplexingly suggested after the final whistle. But while he stopped short of giving the team both barrels, he had some ire in reserve for the club captain.
“Bruno Fernandes is stood in the centre circle with his arms raised saying: ‘Why is it not me coming off?’” Neville observed during commentary.
“Honesty. I have to say, I think some of his behaviour in this second half has been a disgrace.”
“I’m going to start with Bruno Fernandes,” he added after the match.
“I’ve had enough of him throwing his arms around at his team-mates; I’ve had enough of him not running back; he whinges at everybody.
“He got pushed in the chest and went down holding his face. He’s got to put a captain’s performance in out there and that wasn’t a captain’s performance by a Manchester United player.”
Anthony Martial
“When you hear the stats there and think he is a goalscorer that cost £50-60million and has scored 89 goals in nine years and we still can’t get him out of the club,” Neville said of the French striker ahead of a match against Newcastle United in November 2023.
“I don’t think we are being hard enough. The failing of the football and recruitment department is absolutely incredible.
“The reality is there is no way he should be leading the line in any competition.”
Tottenham
“It was an absolutely disgusting performance in that first half in effort, quality, everything you would want in a football team,” Neville responded to United’s latest big defeat under Ten Hag, 3-0 at home to Tottenham.
“There will be a lot of questions to answer for that group (of players) and the manager in the next week.
“I’ve been here at Man United enough over the past 10 to 12 years to know that a game and a result like this needs reversing rather quickly. The snowball starts to roll down that hill and it gathers apace. Erik ten Hag has got to stop it at source right now because this is a shocking day, a sobering day.
“I said just before the game that there can be no excuses. A mountain of cash has been spent and invested. The first half was absolutely woeful, as bad as it gets.”
“The pressure is going to get ramped up this week – it is going to be brutal. It has been a bad day for Ten Hag, really bad. It’s one of the worst performances I have seen under Ten Hag – and that is saying something. It is really bad.”