‘Do your research’ – Gary Neville slammed for asking Luke Littler ‘disrespectful question’ by darts star
GARY NEVILLE has been accused of being “disrespectful” towards Luke Littler.
World champion Littler sat down with Neville, Roy Keane, Jill Scott, Jamie Carragher and Ian Wright to discuss his exploits at the oche over the past year.
During The Overlap podcast appearance, Neville decided to quickly question Littler on his mental maths.
The Manchester United legend said: “If I give you three random numbers, could you give me finishes straight away?”
Former World Matchplay winner Colin Lloyd has accused Neville of being “disrespectful” – insisting the 50-year-old was wrong to ask the question.
He told talkSPORT: “I actually thought that was a disrespectful question.
“Quite simply because, of course we’d bloody know, we are professional darts players. Our game is numbers.
“It would have been like [asking] Gary Neville: ‘If I kicked a ball towards the goal, do you think you could slide-tackle in and clear it off the line?’.
“Yeah, of course he could, he’s a defender. Why did you ask him about numbers then?
“Was it Ian Wright who turned around and said: ‘He could call any number out against us, we wouldn’t know’. Do your research!
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“Don’t sit there and say he could be saying anything and you wouldn’t know.
“How unprofessional did they make themselves look?
“How much are they disrespecting the sport of darts through not doing their homework?”
Retired star Vincent van der Voort insisted there are too many ‘fanboys’ of ‘The Nuke’ on the PDC circuit.
Van der Voort singled out Stephen Bunting and Nathan Aspinall as being too nice to Littler on the oche – instead of looking to get in the youngster’s head.
Littler revealed Michael van Gerwen is a player who does indeed attempt to distract him with mind games.
He added: “I travel to tournaments with Chris Dobey and Nathan Aspinall as we’ve got the same management team.
“With the other players like Michael van Gerwen or Luke Humphries, we’ll talk in the practice room and have banter to try and get into each other’s heads.
“Before every tournament, before we go on stage, we throw for nearest the bull to see who goes first.
“I’ll go over to Michael van Gerwen, and he’ll try to get in my head about hitting the bullseye first but I always get it before he does!”