Will It Make A Difference To Neville?

Gary Neville has been issued with his second warning of the season after sticking his middle finger up at Carlos Tevez on Tuesday. The United captain didn’t take too kindly to our former player celebrating the undeserved penalty in front of the dugout.

After being served a warning by the FA for celebrating Michael Owen’s late winner against City earlier in the season, fans were expecting a ban or a fine.

Instead, Neville has been served another warning from the FA, as has Tevez, and the club has been told his feud with the Argie midget has to stop.

Whilst sticking your finger up at someone is no great offence, Neville has been fined £5000 in the past for simply showing his badge to Liverpool supporters, so we may feel lucky that only a warning has been given.

But I do wonder what good it will do. If United go on to beat City in the second leg, particularly in dramatic circumstances, I can’t imagine Neville will celebrate modestly.

We should expect all sorts of hateful chants directed at our captain, particularly following Tevez’s bizarre outburst, so I really wouldn’t put it past Neville to go overboard if we knock City out of the League Cup next week.

Neville has played in just 14 of United’s 33 games this season due to injury and competition for places, so it’s not as if we would miss him from the starting XI, particularly when considering he has featured in just 6 Premiership matches. So paying a small percentage of his wage in fines to the FA would probably be worth it to celebrate in front of the away fans.

If I earned a five figure salary on a weekly basis, I know I would be prepared to give some of that away to piss off the bitters, so I have no doubt Neville feels the same way.

And in all honesty, I hope that is what happens. With Tevez playing Billy Big Balls this week, I would love for Neville to have the last laugh, and to behave like every United fan wishes they could.

When John O’Shea scored that injury time winner in front of the Kop, the Irishman revealed in his post match interview that our captain told him he dreamed of doing what JoS had done. Well, what I wouldn’t give to be on the field when our lads added another year of misery to Manchester City by dumping them out of the League Cup and kissing our badge in front of them. Neville probably feels the same and will be happy enough to take on any ban/fine that comes with rubbing their noses in it.

Roll on Wednesday!