Gary Neville quote: The Valencia manager didn't say those things about Barcelona

Unfortunately it's all a big lie

(Twitter/BBC Sporf)

"You see teams go to the Nou Camp and get beat 5, 6, 7-0. Barce are a good side, well they're a great side. But if I was involved with a team who got beat 7-0 there I wouldn't be able to look my family in the eyes anymore." - Gary Neville, 15/4/2015

Chances are if you've spent any time on social media this morning you would have seen this quote, apparently made by the Valencia manager during his time as a pundit with Sky Sports.

It's widespread, it's hilarious. Unfortunately it's also completely made up.

Here at Independent Towers we've just spent the las 30 minutes trawling YouTube footage, old news articles, images and more - in fact we've probably spent about 29 minutes 55 seconds longer than we should have done making sure this was a fake.

But we did it to leave you, beloved reader, in no doubt about the veracity of the quote.

Here are our findings:

• Searches of the quotes do not appear on any old news articles
• The first mention of the quote anywehere on the internet - on forums, social media and rival websites - all first appear in the last 14 or so hours
• Neville is clearly in a Monday Night Football studio - 15 April was a Wednesday
• Neville never usually did punditry on Champions League nights, he was largely co-commentator
• There's no YouTube footage of Neville saying anything to that effect
• If one does a Google image search on 'Gary Neville analysis' the image used is one of the first to appear
• Further investigation of that image shows it was taken from 18 August, 2014 - the night Chelsea beat Burnley 3-0 at Turf Moor
• Neville doesn't appear to have worn that blazer/tie combo since

So there you have it, another (we all remember 'Jose Mourinho' leaving Cobham after he was sacked by Chelsea) over the top investigation by The Independent's dedicated team of football reporters.

Still funny, though.