Sunday saw Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher on commentary duties during the Liverpool v Manchester City match.
The lead up to this Premier League game was dominated of course by the independent commission finding Manchester City guilty on 114 of the 115 claimed breaches of Premier League rules.
Then an appeal lodged by Man City, so everything on hold until the 114 guilty verdicts go through the designated appeal process.
In the Sky Sports coverage before Sunday’s kick-off, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were amongst those giving their opinion on the Premier League case with Manchester City.
I don’t have an issue with that.
However, then the Liverpool v Manchester City match kicked off.
The game ended in an easy 3-0 away win for Enzo Maresca and his players.
What I do have an issue with is Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher during the actual 90+ minutes of football, whilst they were on ‘match commentary’ duty.
All the way through the actual match, both Carragher and Neville repeatedly referenced the Premier League case when talking about what was happening in the actual game.
Their ‘match commentary’ was riddled with it, so when Manchester City went 1-0, then 2-0, then 3-0 up, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher coming out with stuff like how yes they are winning but it all feels meaningless because of the Premier League case. They said this kind of thing or similar, time and time again, it was relentless.
They are there to comment on the match as it is ongoing, what we are all watching, not constantly giving THEIR opinion on something that isn’t part of the 90+ minutes of action on the pitch. Say whatever they want before and after the match, draw conclusions on whatever outside the 90+ minutes, BUT during the game just focus on what the two teams are doing.
There was also another level to this, because Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville kept making statements about Manchester City and their Premier League case and what they thought about it, BUT presenting their statements as though it was simply fact that the rest of us all automatically agreed with what they were saying. With the exception of Man City fans of course.
So both Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher repeatedly saying things as though fans of all other clubs (apart from Man City) all agreed with their point of view that Manchester City are the absolute bad guys and all the other clubs are the good guys, totally innocent and have been wronged.
I was shouting at the telly, every time they did this, which was a lot. The fact is that whilst I have no doubt Manchester City are guilty and will deserve to be punished if/when that is decided on appeal, the idea that the likes of Spurs, Arsenal Chelsea and especially their (Carragher and Neville’s) clubs Liverpool and Man U are totally innocent is hilarious.
Man U and Liverpool were the ones who led the six Premier League clubs in trying to steal away control of the Premier League by awarding themselves extra voting powers so they could vote through whatever changes they wanted for the future. Then when they were stopped from doing that, Man U and Liverpool led the six clubs in trying to help form a European Super League with their dodgy mates at clubs on the continent, trying to steal football away from everybody else.
Manchester City were one of those six of course but I think for many other football fans, the likes of Man U and Liverpool are just as bad as Man City in the way they have acted.
So please, no more lecturing us all during the actual matches on Sky Sports.