Gary Neville: 'Jack Wilshere taunting rivals best thing I've seen'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 30 July 2015

Manchester United legend Gary Neville suggests that football supporters were wrong to criticise Jack Wilshere after his infamous anti-Tottenham Hotspur chant last season.

Gary Neville has claimed that seeing Jack Wilshere taunt Tottenham Hotspur supporters was "one of the best things" he has seen from a footballer in the past decade.

England and Arsenal midfielder Wilshere was fined £40,000 by the Football Association for encouraging Gunners fans to join in with expletive-filled songs about their rivals.

The 23-year-old was also "severely warned" about his future conduct by the governing body, but Manchester United legend Neville insists that there was nothing wrong with the chants.

"When Jack Wilshere swore on a bus ride, I actually thought it was one of the best things I've seen from a football player in the past five or 10 years," he told Sport magazine.

"If I was a manager of players that all had that passion... Alright, they'd obviously been out the night before. But the reality of it is we cry out for players to have passion, and yet we are quite critical of them when they display passion."

Wilshere accepted his FA charge, which came after Arsenal's 4-0 victory against Aston Villa in May's FA Cup final.