Gary Neville has revealed he won’t be at Saturday’s FA Cup final between Manchester United and Manchester City, pointing to his experience of last year’s final as his reason for not attending.
United were beaten 2-1 by City in the 2023 FA Cup final, and Pep Guardiola’s side are again strong favourites to beat their rivals.
Neville attended last season’s final but revealed he would be watching Saturday’s game “from behind the sofa”. When asked why he wouldn’t be at Wembley, Neville told the Stick to Football podcast: “Do you know something, I went last year, I didn’t enjoy it. It was hard work getting into the stadium, it was hard work getting out to the car park, I ran into a couple of City fans on the way out and I just thought ‘nah’.”
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Neville’s former teammate Keane couldn’t believe he would not be in attendance, saying: “You’re saying you’ll be behind the sofa? That’s a sad state of affairs if you feel you can’t watch United in a cup final. Listen, there’s always a hope they will turn up and produce some sort of performance or moment. I think they have moments.
“I look at the City team over the last few weeks, Spurs did well against them, I look at the Forest game and I look at the City team, are they still favourites? Of course they are, but you still believe, you have to go down [to Wembley] if you have any belief in United that they can turn up at Wembley and produce a performance.”