England fans hit out at Gary Neville and Thomas Tuchel in a series of sarcastic and foul-mouthed chants at their World Cup qualifier against Latvia.
Supporters branded Neville a ‘w*****’ – seemingly in response to his rant about ‘angry, middle-aged white men’ putting up Union Flags in the streets.
Neville had seemingly riled fans with his recent video complaining about Britons fastening St George’s and Union Jack flags to lampposts as part of the campaign known as ‘Operation Raise The Colours’.
‘I just kept thinking as I was driving home last night that we’re all being turned on each other,’ Neville said earlier this month. ‘And the division that’s being created is absolutely disgusting – mainly created by angry, middle-aged white men, who know exactly what they’re doing.’
And the fans also took aim at Tuchel with barbed chants after he recently criticised the England support as ‘silent’ following their 3-0 win over Wales at Wembley.
The travelling support whipped out their songs in the opening minutes in Riga on Wednesday, most prominently: ‘Are we loud enough for you?’
Tuchel stuck his neck on the line last week when he blasted England’s support as ‘silent’ and ‘sad’ following their 3-0 win over Wales at Wembley.
A poll of Daily Mail Sport readers found that most people actually agreed with Tuchel’s comments, but he had seemingly riled the Three Lions faithful who made the trip to Latvia.
‘Are we loud enough for you’ and ‘Thomas Tuchel, we’ll sing when we want’ rang around the ground not long after kick off.
They were followed by a more foul-mouthed effort: ‘Our support is f***ing s***.’
And after a while, the choir encouraged the German to contribute a ditty of his own, chanting: ‘Thomas, give us a song!’
Even after Anthony Gordon had put England ahead 1-0, the fans kept hammering away with their songs.
Their reaction was sparked by Tuchel’s comments about the Wembley atmosphere last week.
Fans were performing Mexican waves and launching paper aeroplanes in the second half of a 3-0 win that was wrapped up inside 20 minutes.
Morgan Rogers scored his first England goal early on, followed by strikes from Ollie Watkins and Bukayo Saka.
But Tuchel was left unimpressed by the reaction of 70,000 home fans as England sauntered to victory, with thousands leaving before full-time amid severe delays on the London Underground.
‘The stadium was silent,’ Tuchel fumed. ‘We never got any energy back from the fans. If you just hear Wales fans, it’s a bit sad. The team deserved big support. What more can we give in 20 minutes?
‘The support in Serbia was absolutely fantastic. I love English football fans but the atmosphere today didn’t match the performance on the field.
‘I stand by this statement. We cannot do more than being 3-0 in a derby. I was thinking, “why is the roof still on the stadium?”
‘I would have wished for a bit more support in phases where it gets difficult. In the second half to get behind us, there was a bit too much support for Wales.’
