Gary Neville breaks silence over Jamie Carragher spitting furore

Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville

Gary Neville has defended his Sky Sports colleague Jamie Carragher and claimed he does not deserve to lose his job.

The former Liverpool star was caught on video spitting at the passenger window of a car containing a 14-year-old Manchester United fan and her dad after Saturday’s win for Jose Mourinho’s men over the Anfield outfit.

In a video of the incident, the teenage girl’s father repeatedly mentioned the score in the match between Manchester United and Liverpool this weekend and Carragher is heard to say, “Alright”, before spit at the car alongside his.

Carragher was suspended from his duties as a Sky Sports pundit after spitting at the girl, the broadcaster announced.

The former Liverpool defender described the incident as “a moment of madness” in an interview on Sky News.

Carragher said: “It was almost an out of body thing but you can’t ever behave like that, it’s unacceptable.

“A moment of madness for four or five seconds. No matter what the circumstances you can’t ever behave like that.

“My biggest regret is for the 14-year-old girl to be caught in the middle of it. That devastates me more than anything. I’ve got a daughter exactly the same age and I can’t say how I’d react if someone did that to her.”

Sky said Carragher’s actions were “well below the standards we expect of our people”.

Carragher said in the interview: “If someone had done what I had done on the pitch I would vilify them.”

And he said the incident did not represent “the real me”, adding: “I have brought shame on the name of football. I was a role model, people looked up to me.”

Now Neville has waded int the debate and claimed Carragher “overstepped the mark”, but said the incident “shouldn’t stop us working together”.