Gary Neville encountered a dog on the street over the weekend and was verbally abused, leaving him worried that the dog was about to attack him. Video footage shared on social media this week showed the Sky Sports pundit walking alongside his wife Emma as he was approached by members of the public.
The man behind the camera can be heard saying: “Is that Gary Neville? Shit, shit, shit. That’s you, you son of a bitch. Listen, listen, you’re filming because you’re a motherfucker. You know a lot about working-class people. Even your own fans are against you, so you’re like, ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ ”
Now, Neville has opened up about the harrowing ordeal on Overlap. He said: “Roy[Keene]and I went to see James, it was a great concert. So we walked to the concert and this guy just started going.”
When Ian Wright interjected and pointed out that Neville was accompanied by his wife, the 51-year-old replied: “That’s where I think it’s wrong. To be fair, this has never happened before. But when I’m with my wife…”
Adding, “You know what I should have done? You know the mistake I made? I should have filmed him, because no one would ever know who he is. You know what I’m saying? And I think if I had filmed him, he might not have released it. I don’t know.”
Neville also claimed that the man had a “very aggressive” dog with him and that he feared the dog would be released on him at any time. “I think he had a dog on a leash that was quite aggressive, and I thought he was going to let it go. I thought it was one of them that he was going to go like that.”
Mr Neville’s sister Tracy recently spoke out against the video after it went viral on social media. she wrote: “I can assure you that this situation is absolutely terrifying and definitely not fun.”
Meanwhile, former footballer John Hartson also weighed in on the incident, explaining: “What does this idiot think he is achieving? Gary is abusing him in public with one of his family members and some asshole. If you want to abuse dead people, do it in front of a TV screen, not in public. Not very smart!”
Jill Scott responded to Neville on the overlap, adding: “But for someone to come up to you in the street and start calling you names, I just think…Like, people may have differences of opinion and all that, but I think that was very out of line.”
