Gary Neville defends pre-season predictions despite Man United mistake

Gary Neville has defended the predictions he made before the start of the Premier League season, even if some of them turned out to be well wide of the mark.

Last summer, Neville - along with fellow Sky Sports pundits Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane, Jamie Redknapp and Micah Richards - sat down and made predictions.

The former Premier League stars covered a whole host of topics, including who would win the title, who would push the top two, who would be relegated and how Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo saga would end.

All of the pundits got some things right - and some very, very wrong - and Neville has defended his calls.

Responding to a Twitter user who questioned his predictions, Neville said: "They're actually pretty accurate."

So, what exactly did the former United full-back predict was going to happen this season?

To be fair to Neville, it looks like he got his title winners spot on.

The 48-year-old pundit backed Manchester City to win a fifth Premier League title in six seasons, something they will do if they beat Chelsea on Sunday or if Arsenal lose to Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.

However, he did back Liverpool to finish second, with Spurs to push the top two and finish third.

"Spurs are the only one who could but something would have to go badly wrong for Liverpool and City for that to happen," he said.

Liverpool are currently fifth in the standings while Spurs find themselves in seventh. At least he didn't tip Jurgen Klopp's side to win the title like Carragher did...

In terms of relegation, Neville predicted that Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth - the three sides that were promoted to the Premier League - would drop straight back down to the Championship.

"The reason I say that is the inequality in terms of the actual money, is pushing it more that way [down] all the time," he said.

They’re actually pretty accurate 😂

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) May 20, 2023

While Neville can claim to have foreseen Chelsea's disastrous campaign - "It feels rocky, something doesn't feel stable," - his view of the Cristiano Ronaldo affair wasn't so accurate.

When the pundits made their predictions in August, Ronaldo had been making noises after United faced a season without Champions League football.

Neville urged his former team-mate to 'settle down' and insisted he had the power, strength and status to influence matches and the dressing room.

Carragher took the polar opposite view, advising United to get rid of the superstar.

"You can put up with that if he's one of the best players in the world - I don't think he is right now," the former Liverpool defender said.

A few months later Ronaldo left United after criticising manager Erik ten Hag in a tell-all interview with Piers Morgan.