Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher are never shy about going toe-to-toe with each other on Sky Sports, particularly on Monday Night Football.
And this Monday just gone was no different as the pair were asked to make some ‘mid season predictions’, with Neville controversially picking Manchester City to win the title over Arsenal despite the Gunners being five points clear with a game in hand.
Carragher disagreed, citing Arsenal’s dominant performance to beat Neville’s beloved Manchester United 3-2 on Sunday as a key moment for Mikel Arteta’s side.
And the heated debate continued between the two right until the end of the programme, with Carragher stoking the fire by asking Neville to clarify some comments he made about Lionel Messi.
During the World Cup, Neville had been slightly critical of Messi, especially following Argentina’s 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their tournament opener. He said: “Messi the other night – he was walking around the pitch. I said at half-time ‘people don’t fear him anymore’. They don’t! When he’s on the ball now, people go and take it off him, go and tackle him.”
Of course, Messi went on to be Argentina’s inspiration in winning the World Cup – the nation’s first in 36 years and Messi’s crowning career moment – and Carragher hadn’t forgotten what Neville said.
After the predictions and with presenter David Jones about to wrap up, Carragher chipped in pointedly to Neville across the table and said: “Tell us your real thoughts on Messi?”
Neville: “Do you think I said Messi wouldn’t win the World Cup?”
Carragher: “No, you said he was easy to take the ball off. What did you say in the green room before?”
Neville: “No. My words were, on Messi, that Messi now from 10 years ago, you can take the ball off him a lot more – words along those lines. He wasn’t beating players like he used to!”
Carragher then chimed in by talking about Messi’s iconic dribble to drift beyond Josko Gvardiol in the World Cup semi-final against Croatia – one of several world class moments Messi produced to prove Neville’s comments wrong.
But Neville wasn’t having any of it from his Sky Sports counterpart. He even hit back by quoting some of Carragher’s misplaced Manchester United predictions from earlier in the season.
Lionel Messi kissing the World Cup trophy
On Messi he said: “People were taking the ball off him. It’s a matter of fact!”
He then added, to Carragher: “You said [Marcus] Rashford should be sold by United! You said [Antonio] Conte should be at United! You said [Lisandro] Martinez couldn’t play in the Premier League! You’re a disaster!”
MNF anchor Jones then finally got the chance to wrap up the programme, with Carragher finishing by encouraging Arsenal fans to keep giving Neville stick on social media regarding his title predictions.
Source: sportbible
