Xherdan Shaqiri signs shirt for Gary Neville with cheeky message

Xherdan Shaqiri

Xherdan Shaqiri has signed a shirt with a cheeky message for his number one detractor Gary Neville.

The new Liverpool signing has been heavily criticised by Neville on more than one occasion with Neville labelling him “unprofessional” and unwilling to work back defensively.

That criticism has not gone unnoticed by his Sky Sports colleague Jamie Carragher and after the two struck a bet, which Neville subsequently lost, Carragher insisted on Neville wearing a Liverpool replica shirt.

“What’s the bet by the way? There’s got to be something on this,” said Neville.

“To get you a better shirt?” replied Carragher.

To which Neville retorted: “My shirt is fine. You’ve got to wear a United shirt or I’ve got to wear a Liverpool shirt.”

Neville’s poor spot-kick was easily saved by Carra, before the former Liverpool man fired his effort into the corner.

And after winning the sudden-death penalty shoot-out, not only did Carragher get a Shaqiri shirt for Neville, but he also go the Swiss forward to post a message on the back of the shirt.

Neville quickly tried to pull out of the bet though: “I’m not wearing a Liverpool shirt, I’m refusing to wear a Liverpool shirt.”

But Carragher collected the shirt from Shaqiri with the message: “To my Number 1 fan Gary. Please don’t track back. Sorry, please don’t back track on this bet, Xherdan Shaqiri.”

 

Shaqiri scored an overhead kick in pre-season against Manchester United, which understandably led to plenty of Liverpool supporters teasing Neville.

After Neville suggested that the former Stoke player was lazy, Shaqiri responded to that criticism, and mentioned how he was possibly being subjected to criticism due to Neville’s allegiance to Liverpool rivals Manchester United.

Now, Neville has doubled down on his argument.

‘I hope you lot are going to message me every time you see him stood on the halfway line whilst your team are being attacked! ‘ Neville said on Twitter. ‘Oh and he needs Ronaldinho playing with him.’

“I’m not a fan of Shaqiri to be honest with you,” Neville said during the World Cup.

“I think that was, to be fair, worse by the fact that he distanced himself from his team-mates as Stoke.

“They were unprofessional last season, Stoke. There’s no doubt, and he epitomised it.”