For Gary Neville, it must be difficult to commentate on a match involving Manchester United.It must be even more difficult when they’re involved in a cup final.But that was exactly the case for Neville yesterday as United took on Southampton in the EFL Cup with him being co-commentator alongside Martin Tyler on Sky Sports.With Neville being a United legend, having played more than 600 times for the Red Devils, he is still a massive fan of the Old Trafford club.And there were plenty of football fans picking up on Neville’s bias during the match at Wembley.After Jose Mourinho’s side went 2-0 up thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jesse Lingard, Southampton’s Jack Stephens lunged in on Anthony Martial. It was a hard tackle which resulted in plenty of pushing and shoving from both set of players.Stephens was shown a yellow card for his challenges but Neville insisted that he should have been sent off.However, only after seeing the tackle for a fourth time, did Neville realise that the tackle wasn’t quite as bad as he first thought.Here is how Twitter reacted to Neville’s comments:
And, ahead of Monday Night Football, his Sky Sports colleague and old foe, Jamie Carragher, was never going to let him get away with it.
On a live Facebook video, the former Liverpool defender suggested that Neville showed “A little lack of discipline yesterday in the commentary.”
And Neville responded with his version of events.
“Not lack of discipline, it was a commentary mistake. My initial reaction on the Stephens tackle was that it was a bad one,” he said.
"The first replay came in and I went strong again. The second replay came and I went strong again. And it wasn’t until the third replay that I realised it wasn’t a red, it was a yellow.”
Check out the tackle in the video by clicking here - fast forward to 42:40.
It was probably just an honest mistake from Neville but, as it concerned his beloved United, there were plenty of football fans suggesting he was being biased.
We certainly don’t envy Neville every time he has to commentate on United with people hanging on his every word.