Phil Neville has always been the little brother, hasn't he? As a footballer, he was good, but not quite Gary. Now as a pundit, the pundit pundits can't sneeze for endorsing Gary as the greatest thing since sliced bread, while Phil has been plodding away on the BBC, and while his hair ad suit game has been pretty sharp, he hasn't really been saying anything all that interesting.
Last night though, on Match of the Day 2, Phil didn't hold back, and put forward some pretty self evident truths about the state of the Premier League at the moment.
After another poor weekend of Premier League football, Phil Neville is fed up. It's been bothering him for some time. He even went so far as to use the dreaded "B" word - a word that is the very worst thing you could accuse the Premier League or English football of being - "Boring".
While supporters and broadcasters of "the greatest league in the world" have been happy to cede fancy footballing traits like technique and tactics to other leagues, it's always claimed that the excitement and passion of English football was what trumped the other European leagues. It's been a story that the British pundit class have only been too happy to perpetuate. Not anymore, at least for Neville.
Phil Neville says he's been bored watching the Premier League for a few weeks now - do you agree? #MOTD2 pic.twitter.com/WBD4wBWouF
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) May 7, 2017
Not a ringing endorsement of the quality of the Premier League to suggest that only David De Gea from the entire division would make it into the Real Madrid start XI, but what's more shocking is hearing a BBC pundit calling English football boring.
I think any neutral who sat through Liverpool and Southampton yesterday might find it hard to disagree.
It has been a fairly dreadful season, but is it style of play, the players on show, or even the inflated contracts for average players in the bloated market the latest TV deal has created?
