Gary Neville was in a bad mood on Sunday evening.
A 1-1 draw for his former club at home to West Ham resulted in the Sky Sports pundit suggesting that the Europa League fixtures were to blame for Manchester United’s domestic shortcomings.
United find themselves in sixth place in the Premier League table, 11 points behind leaders Chelsea, and Neville reckons that a lot of the struggles Jose Mourinho is experiencing are down to the unwelcome Thursday night distractions.
Shortly before Neville engaged in a lengthy debate with print journalists as he slammed the current state of the media, he asked for someone to disprove his theory that the Europa League has a tendency of hindering the domestic chances of teams involved in the second tier of European club competition.
That EL is a killer!! Always has been and always will… Twitter please educate me on a team that's excelled in the league and been in it.
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) November 27, 2016
And who chimed up with the perfect example but Dundalk midfielder Chris Shields.
In one sublimely timed response, Shields replied to Neville by saying: “We were grand bud,” – a reference to the fact that the Lilywhites were able to claim their third domestic title in a row while juggling Europa League play-offs and subsequently group games.
we were grand bud 😎 pic.twitter.com/XHnFOY0seW
— Chris Shields (@Big_Shields6) November 27, 2016
Dundalk are just one game away from qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition, although they will need a helping hand from group leaders Zenit St. Petersburg.
Stephen Kenny takes his side to Israel next week where they need a result but they will have to hope that Zenit avoid defeat to AZ Alkmaar in the final game of the group.
As for Shields, he continues to be a fantastic follow on Twitter.
Catch up with this week’s episode of Football Friday Live
