‘A joke’ - Gary Neville weighs in on Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa sacking

Gary Neville has hit out at Aston Villa for the way the club handled Steven Gerrard’s sacking.

Gerrard was sacked on Thursday night (20 October) shortly after his side’s 3-0 defeat to newly-promoted Fulham at Craven Cottage, and according to reports he had to get the coach back with the rest of the team and staff.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville described the way Gerrard was dismissed as ‘a joke’.

He said: “One thing I have seen, and I don’t know if it is entirely true and I have seen the reports that Steven Gerrard was sacked straight after the game. Before the team bus had got back or he had chosen to get onto the team bus where he had known that he had been sacked.

“Two things, number one, I feel that tells you about Steven Gerrard. We spoke about Cristiano Ronaldo earlier. Gerrard could have easily got himself a driver, not got back with his team and not got back with his staff. No, he went back with his team and he went back with his staff. Suffering enormously, I am sure, that he has just been sacked. But he did it right.

“I am not quite sure of the logic of the Villa ownership and the decision-makers, to sack a manager knowing he has a two or three hours journey on a bus. Let’s be clear, as owners, we are all liable to criticism when we sack a manager and I have been criticised for that.

“But come on?! Doing it immediately after a game, where you know the manager has to travel back with his staff and his players. I mean that is a joke. You imagine that bus. The only thing you could do is crack a few beers open and get on it. That was the one thing that was bad from Villa’s point of view.”

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