Gary Neville has spoken in length about Liverpool winning the Premier League and in fairness, his comments are honest and appreciative of Jurgen Klopp’s achievement.
The former Manchester United defender turned Sky Sports pundit has made no secret of his desire for Liverpool to fail this term – but sadly for him – over the past 12 months we’ve secured the Champions League, Club World Cup and the Premier League.
We are, in fact, the champions of everything!
“How’s it been these last few days? It’s not been particularly great!” Neville told Sky Sports.
“It’s an incredible achievement. It’s been coming for a couple of years. They were knocking on the door last season – Manchester City had to be at their absolute best.
“Jurgen Klopp has turned £30m players into £130m ones. He’s turned £75m players into £150m ones.
“The recruitment has been brilliant, the coaching has been brilliant and it all comes from the manager. It’s a day I don’t like – I’d seen enough of it in my childhood years – but you have to congratulate them.
“They have absolutely been the best team this season. What Jurgen Klopp has done has been fantastic. He came in four years ago and at the time I never thought Liverpool were capable of mounting a Premier League title challenge. It just felt like all of the other clubs had bigger budgets.
“Liverpool were in a deep rut over many, many years. They have great history and a great fanbase so you can never write clubs like that off, but to go and win a league title ahead of the investment of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United is something I didn’t think was possible.
“What Klopp has done over a three or four-year period has been absolutely outstanding. Everything at a football club comes from the manager, he sets the tone for everybody; the players, the owners, the fanbase. Klopp has galvanised Liverpool over a three-year period, brought everybody with him and put a brilliant team together.
“They’re a fantastic team, they’ve been brilliant to watch for three years but painful for me. It’s been coming. When you get to a Champions League final and lose you have a little smirk, but when they won the Champions League the following year and chased Manchester City like they did to a point where they would have been worthy champions last season, you can only congratulate them.
“It’s obviously something that is horrible for every Manchester United fan, it’s something the modern Manchester United fan has never seen but as one who watched them in the ’70s and ’80s it’s a moment we didn’t want to see again but one we saw a lot of in our early years.”
Neville’s beloved United actually look a different team now Bruno Fernandes is their talisman, and we think they’ll provide us a much bigger challenge next term – even with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the helm.
Players like Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are the perfect age and very talented – although when you look at their starting XI and our starting XI – only a few of their players would get into our side.
Liverpool won’t make many changes before the new term, and we just hope United don’t get Jadon Sancho, as he’d make their team much, much stronger.
For now though, we should simply enjoy the position we hold – and make sure United fans know how much we’re enjoying it!