“The player, coach, and Liverpool added fuel to a fire that wasn’t there.”
Gary Neville stands by his comments over goalkeeper Loris Karius. The Sky Sports pundit appeared on Sunday Supplement for a fascinating debate with renowned English journalists, Martin Samuel, Henry Winter and Oliver Holt.
Neville was asked about his criticism of the Liverpool goalkeeper, particularly advising him to steer clear from engaging in such interviews but he clarified it by explaining how Karius had nothing to gain from engaging in a war of words with the media.
That wasn’t the end of it.
“It came across as bullying,” Chief Sports Writer for the Mail on Sunday, Oliver Holt weighed in.
“It was like a collective ganging up on him. He had the temerity to call you out a bit and mention the fact that you got bombed out of Valencia, which obviously you got the hump about.
“The attitude that he shouldn’t be allowed to speak struck me as odd and it goes into a wider debate about whether we give English players enough responsibility. German players are very intelligent, they’re very use to having a platform, it’s not a big deal for them.
“In our country – and you’ve become partly to blame for this – we’re absolutely obsessive… we’re very poor about communication.”
Gary Neville did not accept those comments.
