Never one to gloat, was Gary.
Liverpool supporters still coming to terms with finishing somewhere between fifth and seventh, missing out on Memphis Depay and Raheem Sterling’s transfer agitations, might be best off skipping the full Gary Neville column in The Telegraph today.
The former Manchester United defender, who is now on the England coaching and Sky Sports punditry staff, has warned the Reds that they are in danger of becoming ‘a provincial club’.
Former Liverpool players, such as Jamie Carragher, Graeme Souness, John Barnes, Jamie Redknapp, and more, have lined up to tell Sterling he is better off at Anfield. Neville does not agree.
‘Just look back over the past 10-15 years,’ he writes, ‘and count the number of players who have left Anfield to pursue bigger and better things elsewhere.
‘Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez have all gone.’
Cristiano Ronaldo, he argues, was the only Manchester United player that wanted to go, rather than Alex Ferguson steering it that way. The David de Gea pursuit, by Real Madrid, may render Neville’s point somewhat moot.
Neville states that United and Liverpool are, undoubtedly, the Premier League’s best supported clubs, worldwide. He adds, W’hile United have been happy to shout from the rooftops about how big they are and promote the legend and mythology of the club on a global scale for years Liverpool seem to have been stuck in their own mud.’
He warns of the suffocating pressure Liverpool players feel in the city and counters with an anecdote about the freedom and comfort United players felt when out and about in Manchester.
Neville believes Liverpool’s emotional investment in the club is as much a weakness as it is a strength and points to the countless plans to revamp Anfield. All the while, he argues, United have built a 75,000-seater behemoth at Old Trafford. He cites Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Arsenal as sides that have moved [stadiums] with the times.
Neville derides Liverpool’s transfer committee and believes the club need a visionary to drag them into the 21st century.
He closes with this: ‘If Sterling leaves, then that will be another star player who has decided that Liverpool is a club that is unable to match their ambitions.
‘I might be the last person that Liverpool fans want to hear this from, an outsider who played for their biggest rivals, but these are things that need saying.’
Check out Nevlle’s full column here.
