Manchester United fans knew Gary Neville didn’t like Liverpool and they loved him for it.
Liverpool fans obviously hated him for it and no player received more abuse from the Anfield faithful during the late 1990s and 2000s than the English right-back.
Some of the chants directed towards Neville from certain Liverpool supporters were nothing short of disgraceful - although, in the balance of fairness, there were occasions when the defender didn’t help himself - but their relationship has become (slightly) less hostile since he became a pundit for Sky Sports five years ago.
Neville, however, has admitted in an interview with Soccer AM that he still takes special measures when working on matches at Anfield.
“As a pundit, working with Sky, let’s say I’ve got to be there for a 3pm kick-off. I’m there at 11 in the morning before any of them have turned up,” the 42-year-old admitted. “I’m there at 8pm at night when they’ve all gone home! Let them all relax, calm down.”
The one tweet Liverpool fans could destroy Neville with
Neville was going through some of his old tweets for a Soccer AM feature called #ThrowbackTweets and there are some absolute gems in there.
However, there is one tweet that Neville sent back in October that he fully expects Liverpool fans will destroy him with one day in the future - provided they win the Premier League title.
First of all, here’s the tweet…
“I was walking through the lounges to get to the studio and it said ‘Anfield: Where greatness happens’,” Neville explained. “I just changed it to ‘happened’.
“Now that tweet, trust me, when Liverpool win a league - if they ever do again, which is going to be a very depressing day, bad day - that is going to come back at me, retweeted ten thousand, million times.
“So that’s a tweet you send, knowing full well it’s going to hurt you one day.”
The former Valencia head coach, who was also part of Roy Hodgson’s coaching staff with the England national team until last summer, continued: “They went on a little run with [Jurgen] Klopp, didn’t they - they got near the top of the league - I thought if they win the league this season, I am done. Delete! Screenshots happen unfortunately.
“That is definitely one that will bite me right where I don’t want it to.”
However, Neville doesn’t want any Liverpool fans tweeting him if they win the FA Cup or League Cup. Only Premier League titles count, Reds fans…
“They’ll need to win a league for that to come back at me,” he added. “Can’t win the FA Cup or a League Cup, they’ll have to win a league.”
Asked if Liverpool could win a league title in the next five years, Neville whispered: “Let’s hope not.”
Video: Neville discusses the tweet in question
Scroll to 6 minutes to watch Neville discuss the tweet...
Fair play to Neville, though. He won’t delete the tweet - even if the Merseyside outfit do end their long wait for a league title over the coming seasons.