Jamie Carragher has opened up on conversations he had with disgruntled Manchester United fans that stormed into Old Trafford ahead of their game with Liverpool.
Thousands of supporters gathered outside of the team’s hotel and ground in order to protest against the club’s owners.
The Glazers have angered fans in recent seasons, but the decision to initially join the doomed European Super League has been an igniting factor.
United were named as one of 12 ‘founding members’ before the vociferous reaction saw teams eventually backtrack.
Joel Glazer issued a frank apology, but that has been roundly rejected amid a furious backlash.
(Image: Getty Images)
While protests remained peaceful a group managed to gain access into the stadium and onto the pitch.
After being dispersed by security, another group returned, venturing into executive boxes.
The Premier League confirmed that the kick-off would be delayed, on a day that could see Manchester City crowned Premier League champions.
As part of Sky Sports’ coverage, Liverpool legend Carragher was asked about the interactions he had with supporters offering his fullest sympathy to their cause.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Man Utd fans protested about the club’s ownership outside of Old Trafford
“The frustration with the ownership and I must say I’m obviously a Liverpool supporter in this stadium with Manchester United fans coming past me, but I do think in this situation, football rivalry goes out of this.
“Listen, it’s been peaceful, there’s no problem in the stadium, I’m unsure about outside the stadium, but it’s been a peaceful protest.
“They’re very unhappy with their owners, not just of what they’re doing in terms of buying a striker, or buying a player in the summer, I think as supporters and how they’ve been treated at this club and how they’ve gone about it.
“The frustration comes from that and it’s obviously heightened with what happened with the Super League.”
Fellow pundit Gary Neville, who was a vocal critic of the plans suggesting that the ESL was the breaking point for the fans’ relationship with the Glazer family.
“You know what’s at the heart of it, this is the consequence of the owners of Manchester United’s actions two weeks ago,” he explained.
Obviously there’s a general disgust and dislike of the owners of this football club, but they weren’t protesting two or three weeks ago before this happened.
“Generally, the Glazer family along with a number of other families of football owners in this country were conniving and scheming behind the rest of football’s back to walk away with the crown jewels and today we’ve seen people protest at that and the fact this game is delayed is because of that.”
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