Gary Neville and Jurgen Klopp have clashed over comments the former Manchester United captain made about Liverpool following the announcement of the European Super League.
Last season’s title winners are among the six Premier League clubs looking to break away from the Champions League and form a new competition, and as the news first broke an incensed Neville slammed the Merseysiders, claiming the owners of Liverpool are going against everything the club supposedly stands for.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Neville said he was appalled by the plan: “I’m disgusted with Manchester United and Liverpool the most. Liverpool say they’re the people’s club, ‘you’ll never walk alone’, the fans’ club.
“It’s pure greed. The owners of this club, the owners of Liverpool, they’ve nothing to do with these clubs. All they care about is money.”
But despite receiving widespread praise for rant, one man who didn’t fully agree with Neville’s assessment was Klopp, and after seeing his side lose more ground in their fight for the top four with a draw at Leeds, the German went after the former United and England right-back for his comments.
“That Gary Neville speaks about ‘You’ll Never Walk alone’ – that at least should be forbidden,” Klopp told reporters after seeing his side drop more points at Elland Road.
“Because we have a lot of right to sing our anthem. It’s our anthem, not his anthem – and he doesn’t understand it anyway.”
While Klopp took umbrage with some of Neville’s comments, the former Borussia Dortmund boss was reminded of his comments on a European Super League two years ago, in which he said he was dead against the idea and hoped it would never happen. Asked whether he still felt the same about the idea, Klopp said he did.
“My opinion didn’t change. Obviously, I heard about it for the first time since yesterday, and trying to prepare a game, a very difficult game against Leeds, and I knew so far we got some information, not a lot to be honest.
“It’s a tough one. People are not happy about it, and I can understand that, but I cannot say a lot more about it because we were not involved in the processes, not the players, not me, we didn’t know about it. We will have to wait to see how it develops.”
Neville hit back, pondering why his comments got to Klopp so much, saying he wasn’t sure why he’s living in the Liverpool manager’s head.
A little over 24 hours since new first broke, and things are really heating up with this story already. It looks like it’ll be an interesting few months in football.