Manchester United legend Gary Neville has made a lot of middle-aged white men angry by making a fair point about division in the UK and beyond.<\/p>\n
Neville<\/a> has come in for a lot of stick over the last week with the Daily Mail\u2019s reporting of his comments<\/a> particularly concerning as they described them as a \u2018racist\u2019 outburst.<\/p>\n Despite the former Man Utd and England defender making a wider point condemning \u201chate speech in any form and abuse in any form\u201d and urging everyone to unite \u201cto get back to a country of love, of peace, of harmony\u201d, they have predictably been dragged out of context in certain quarters.<\/p>\n Obviously Neville\u2019s view\u00a0lamenting \u201cthe division that\u2019s being created\u2026mainly by angry, middle-aged white men who know exactly what they\u2019re doing\u201d have taken all of the headlines with middle-aged white men particularly enraged by the Sky Sports pundit and businessman.<\/p>\n Here we have put together nine of the best, worst, and honestly most terrifying views on Neville\u2019s comments this week\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Joey Barton<\/p>\n \u201cIn his, obviously, isolated world he lives in, he\u2019s in the kind of ivory tower position of being shuttled into a Sky studio, back behind a wall in whatever sprawling estate he\u2019s got, they\u2019re saying he\u2019s worth between \u00a350m and \u00a370m. People are telling me that Overlap earns all them \u00a320,000 a pop, they\u2019re sponsored by ARNE now so surely ARNE\u2019s going to be delighted with Gary saying that because I would imagine their target audience is white, middle-class men. It\u2019s definitely not fella\u2019s called Jihad, white, middle-class men called Jihad. I can\u2019t imagine there being that many of them around.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Gary\u2019s got himself into this virtue signalling nonsense. We have this pillock, Neville, and he\u2019s crossed over with me because as I said to him and Rio last night, I\u2019m more than welcome to debate both of you. Let\u2019s roll for two hours, discuss any topic. Gary sat in a room with me when we did The Edge podcast, you don\u2019t need to be scared of me, but intellectually I think you\u2019ve got a lot to answer for here.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Gary Neville has thought about who are his audience. Because I\u2019m looking at it going, you\u2019ve just said people who like the Union Jack, people who are patriotic to show their country\u2019s flag in, in this instance, the country he\u2019s from and represented 85 times at international level\u2026just factor in if he said somebody with brown skin or somebody with black skin, there\u2019d be an absolute outrage about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The delightful Barton added:\u00a0\u201cPeople like this, gaslighting you all the time, saying to you: \u2018no, no you\u2019re a racist for thinking that. You\u2019re far right for thinking that.\u2019 There\u2019s a synagogue attacked and we get a f*****g d***head footballer, absolute idiot, whose ar**hole is for rent to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that\u2019s the Qataris, he\u2019ll forget anything to do with human rights to go and take the Qatari money. He is a whore who is open for exploitation as he has shown this weekend with his stupid comments.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if he was a man of the people, like he says he was, and if he was really in touch with his fanbase or the people that support his shows or his football club or some of his businesses, then he would know middle-aged white men in this country aren\u2019t the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cSticking a few flags up and being petrified that your daughters or your granddaughters or your wife are going to be accosted in a changing room by an illegal invader is not a f*****g far right position.\u201d<\/p>\n READ:\u00a0Neville a \u2018traitor\u2019 and Postecoglou sack imminent to bafflement of Daily Mail<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Simon Jordan<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s astonishing in the wake of an Islamist terror attack that he decides to have a go at middle-aged white men.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe the middle-aged white men are the ones who worked on minimum wage inside his hotel, I don\u2019t know. I think he\u2019s a champagne socialist and a coward. It\u2019s a dreadful thing to have said.\u201d<\/p>\n Pushed on why Neville is a coward, Jordan went on: \u201cI think the real issue is about radical Islamist extremism and he doesn\u2019t have the balls to call it out for what it is, rather than suggest that challenging our country about what\u2019s happening, he\u2019s insulated from these things.<\/p>\n \u201cHe lives in a very rarefied world where his money and privilege has allowed him to live in a gated environment, not have to worry about\u00a0NHS\u00a0appointments, doesn\u2019t have to worry about people being attacked in the streets by immigrants that shouldn\u2019t be here in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to worry about these things, so he has the ability to sit there and observe in such a way that insulates himself from it. I think it\u2019s an appalling stance to have taken.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s entitled to his view, he\u2019s entitled to a view. We are quite happy to wave any other flag in this country, whether it\u2019s Palestinian flags, Ukraine flags or any other flag that we feel we\u2019re able to wave.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you\u2019re talking about people in this country that have legitimate concerns and want to have a legitimate value set and push back against what they\u2019re having forced upon them, for Gary Neville to say what he said is the exact embodiment of being a champagne socialist, insulated from the real world and a coward because the real issue is some of the extremism going on in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Matt Le Tissier<\/p>\n Le Tissier told students at Southampton Solent University: \u201cHe\u2019s basically attacked the demographic of people that are paying his wages, which is a bit strange.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it depends on what side of the argument you fall on and whether your side of the argument suits the agenda of the current media.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich I think, you know, for the large part is very left leaning, so if you\u2019re slightly right leaning you won\u2019t be given the good graces to make mistakes other people will be given.\u201d<\/p>\n The Southampton legend added: \u201cYeah, I think they\u2019ll stand by him and support him, yeah<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, they stood by Jamie Carragher when he spat at a young girl out of the back of his car.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not quite as bad as that, so I think Gary\u2019s got a pretty fair argument there if they try and get rid of him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nigel Farage<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s blaming \u2018middle-aged white men\u2019, the people who actually pay for Sky Sports, pay his salary.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s blaming them for all the division, not some evil, crazed, mad Islamist who went out to kill innocent people.\u201d<\/p>\n Farage added:\u00a0\u201cI will tell you what, this Gary Neville is so detached from reality, so detached from the average football fan, it is not true.<\/p>\n \u201cI am amazed that Sky Sports keep him on.\u201d<\/p>\n READ:\u00a0Neville \u2018tantrums\u2019 \u2018won\u2019t stop until he\u2019s taken off Sky Sports and his Overlap podcast\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jeremy Kyle<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry \u2014 I know I tell you every week I\u2019m gonna come here and I\u2019m gonna be calm. We\u2019re being told that we\u2019re being turned against each other mainly by angry middle-aged white men who deem it OK to put up flags.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna sit here and say stick to football, everybody\u2019s entitled to their opinion, but why am I surrounded by people like Neville who have made millions on the back of working-class people \u2014 people they\u2019re supposed to represent, people they\u2019re supposed to respect?\u201d<\/p>\n Kyle added: \u201cDoes he actually believe that middle-aged white men raising flags is causing division in this country?<\/p>\n \u201cThree hours after those poor, poor Jewish people on Yom Kippur were murdered by that terrorist called Jihad\u2026 a protest march not three hours later, not a mile away, with people waving Palestinian flags and shouting obscenities \u2014 but\u00a0Gary Neville\u00a0wouldn\u2019t mention that, would he?<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you stood up and said it\u2019s disgraceful that these people are marching and inciting violence, people like Neville would say, \u2018Oh but it\u2019s unfair.\u2019 But it\u2019s alright to attack middle-aged white men.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyle continued: \u201cI tell you what\u00a0Gary Neville, do two things: take your fortune and give it to every immigrant and every group that you think isn\u2019t treated well in this country \u2014 do that, but you won\u2019t, will you?<\/p>\n \u201cOr go and live somewhere, you numpty, where there are immigrants on the streets and where your teenage daughters might not feel safe, rather than behind the gates of your massive mansion in Chester.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Oliver Brown, Daily Telegraph Chief Sports Writer<\/p>\n \u2018We need to check ourselves, start to bring ourselves back to a neutral point,\u201d he says, playing the great healer. After all, nothing says neutrality quite like blaming the toxicity exclusively on \u201cangry middle-aged white men\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018How strange that Neville should disdain these people \u2013 the type who work on his building sites, who seek an escape from the daily grind by paying the Sky Sports subscriptions that support his seven-figure salary \u2013 as some unspeakable sub-group of society.<\/p>\n \u2018Neville is the classic case of a celebrity so feted within his own sport that he appears oblivious to anything or anybody who might challenge his world view. Gary Lineker\u00a0fell into the same trap\u2026<\/p>\n \u2018Neville is discovering the hard way that views that resonate inside his self-congratulatory pundit bubble often collapse on first contact with reality. Hence why his latest video has provoked less applause than derision and contempt, with increasing threats from viewers to stop paying for Sky in protest. Perhaps now he realises that if you are going to posture as the voice of balance and reason, you cannot savage the flying of the Union Flag as divisive and then fail even to mention\u00a0the Palestine Action protests\u00a0that took place directly after the Manchester outrage, in defiance of calls to show respect to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n \u2018It is doubly bizarre that Neville invokes his patriotism with the old \u201cI\u2019ve played 85 times for my country\u201d line. These honours, earned from 1995 to 2007, were achieved purely on the strength of his sporting talent, not because of his undying devotion to Queen and country. So why does he now feel an entitlement to define patriotic allegiance for everyone else? The answer, quite simply, is hubris. Neville acts as if his position as the country\u2019s most prominent football analyst also confers the right to be its conscience.<\/p>\n \u2018His response to the atrocity in his home city might be his most dangerous lapse into self-parody yet. The problem is not just the hopelessly mangled logic, with Neville drawing a line from the act of an Islamist terrorist to enthusiasm for the Union Flag, but that he is biting the hand that feeds. Why is he belittling his own audience? Why does he not pause to consider that he has strayed so far out of his lane that he is practically in the ditch? The problem, hardly for the first time, is not angry middle-aged white men, but multimillionaires called Gary deluded into presuming that their football credentials give them a monopoly on moral virtue.\u2019<\/p>\n