As an example of the level of smugness which envelops the Sunday Supplement studio on a weekly basis, Neil Custis asked Gary Neville who had got Loris Karius dropped. Was it Neville himself? Was it the television? Was it Ian Ladyman's interview in the Daily Mail? Was it the newspapers in general?
'We're not that important,' responded Gary Neville in an attempt to bring some realism to the conversation.
At no point did Custis appear to countenance that it might have been Jurgen Klopp's decision and that at no point had the Liverpool manager considered the opinion of pundits and journalists to be relevant.
Earlier on the show, Neville had directly addressed his criticism of Karius following Liverpool's 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth.
Neville denied Oliver Holt's suggestion that as a group he and others had 'bullied' Karius. Neville believes that the story became so big because the Liverpool, including Karius himself, spoke regarding his comments.
It became a big story because the player, coach and Liverpool added fuel to a fire that wasn’t there.
Two weeks ago my most critical comments were about a United and an Everton player. No one will remember what my comment were because United and Everton never reacted to it, the players never reacted to it and they were forgotten about.
I called Fellaini pathetic and idiotic and I battered Stekelenburg for his part in Ibrahimovic’s goal. I said Karius transmits anxiety and nervousness to his team-mates.
The other two stories have disappeared to the point at which no one can remember them, that’s how I would expect press departments of football clubs to deal with these things.
When Karius did his newspaper interview I knew he would be out of the team in a few days, I knew he brought pressure on himself.
Young players should always do interviews and me saying, ‘stay clear of the situation’ – my advice to Karius after doing the interview he did – and Phil Neville and Jamie Carragher telling him to stay quiet, as ex-players, we were more guiding him saying, ‘this is not a fight for now.’
From our point of view as pundits though, we did our job, we created the debate.
You can watch Gary Neville on Sunday Supplement below.
