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Football

15th Jul 2018

Gary Neville’s “muppets” comment was a lot of viewers’ World Cup highlight

Hilarious

Darragh Murphy

Gary Neville should perhaps think about broadening his horizons into political punditry.

Neville was on ITV for the World Cup final on Sunday afternoon and while France and Croatia played out an absolute classic, the former Manchester United right-back gave us a comment which many viewers have described as the moment of the tournament.

The 2018 World Cup will be remembered for several moments. You had Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunning free-kick in the early stages, you had the hope provided by Gareth Southgate’s England side and you had the emergence of Kylian Mbappe on the world stage.

You also had Gary Neville describing Boris Johnson and David Davis as “muppets.”

Last week saw Davis and Johnson resign from their posts as Brexit Secretary and Foreign Secretary respectively and Neville somehow managed to shoehorn their names into his discussion of France’s World Cup triumph.

While praising Russia for how they’d organised the tournament, Neville suggested that British football fans ought to take a long, hard look at their own politicians.

“There was so much scaremongering before this tournament about how it was going to go and how it was going to be bad,” Neville said as the presentation ceremony took place.

“Everybody’s got their dream tournament when they’re growing up, mine was 1982.

“I think this tournament has been the greatest tournament I’ve ever seen. It’s been unbelievable.

“You see Putin there and obviously he’s got this horrible reputation. He might not be a saint.

“But we’ve got a couple of muppets back home! You’ve got Boris Johnson and David Davis and those guy who’ve just resigned. They’re absolute muppets, these guys.

“We’ve come here this month to Moscow and it’s been absolutely brilliant. The whole tournament has been amazing. I’m actually sad that the tournament’s finished because it’s been wonderful.”

It goes without saying that Neville’s comments went down well online.