Gary Neville
(Picture: PA)Gary Neville made a remark about leadership last night and people think he was slagging off politicians.
Commentating on ITV after England won in the semi-final game against Denmark last night, the pundit celebrated the win and praised England’s manager Gareth Southgate in particular - comparing him to other leaders.
He said: “The standard of the leaders in the past couple of years in this country has been poor but look at that man there... he’s everything a leader should be: respectful, humble, tells the truth, genuine. He’s fantastic, Gareth Southgate”.
Whatever could he have meant?
Well, reacting to his comments, people assumed Neville was making a subtle dig about Prime Minister Boris Johnson and they thought it was brilliant:
Thank you @gnev2 and I hope someone plays that clip to the bandwagon buffoon up in the royal box … ‘The standard of leader in this country has been awful these last two years and that man (Southgate) is everything a leader should be - honest and humble’ (and good at his job)
— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) July 7, 2021
Wow! Gary Neville on ITV
— Alan Stedman 🇪🇺🇬🇧#FBPE #FBPA💙💙💙🍃💚🍃 (@alanjstedman) July 7, 2021
"The standards of leaders in this country has been poor in the last two years and looking at that man there it's everything a leader should be, respectful, humble, tell the truth, genuine. He's fantastic Gareth Southgate, he really is unbelievable..."
"Respectful, humble, tells the truth, everything a leader should be" - Gary Neville on Gareth Southgate. (CC @BorisJohnson)
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) July 7, 2021
I loved Gary Neville's comment tonight about how there hasn't been any real leadership in this country as of late and how Gareth Southgate is demonstrating to everyone how it's done. That was just brilliant and so spot on!
— Daniela Nadj (@DanielaNadj) July 7, 2021
Gary Neville telling it like it is:
— Teresa 🇬🇧🇪🇺 #FBPE #ProgressiveAlliance (@iampetmutton) July 7, 2021
“the standard of leadership in this country the last couple of years has been terrible, but Gareth Southgate has shown the nation how to do it, with honesty and decency”
Bravo Gary, Bravo 👏👏👏#englandvdenmark #ENG #JohnsonVariant
Gary Neville delivers 100% absolutely smashes it out of the park.. a quote that will live forever pic.twitter.com/pYksKoWde3
— ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) July 7, 2021
Others bemoaned that he was making a unifying moment ‘political’:
Gary Neville should stick to talking about football and keep his personal opinions to himself. We don’t want to hear them 😠
— Louise (@apprentice_hw) July 7, 2021
Foolish of him to risk spoiling a moment of national unity by being political. He's not paid for his political views but for his football punditry. There's been too much division in England in recent years. Let's use this moment to come together and show the world what we can do.
— Richard O'Callaghan 🏴 (@OCallaghanRedux) July 7, 2021
It’s not the first time Neville has combined football and politics. Recently, he contributed to the huge backlash Home Secretary Priti Patel received when she praised England for winning their quarter-final game against Ukraine, despite previously ripping into the team for taking the knee to show their support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement:
The cheek of you ! https://t.co/wLyHzw3tw9
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) July 4, 2021
Meanwhile, Johnson attended the game in Wembley and was ripped apart on social media for appearing to wear an England top over a shirt and tie, in scenes that trumped him perching on a table to watch another match, and standing on a massive England flag ahead of the quarter-final.
We just wonder how closely he would have been listening to Neville’s commentary.
