Gary Neville refused to pick any Manchester City players in a combined XI with Manchester United's treble-winning side because Pep Guardiola's team haven't repeated the feat... yet.
As it stands, United are on the only team in history to win the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in the same season. The Red Devils did so under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson during the 1998/99 campaign, with Neville playing at right-back.
Yet City could match United's achievement shortly. They need to win just one of their final three games to retain the Premier League title, and they are the favourites to win the Champions League and FA Cup. City face United in the final of the latter competition.
With City close to matching United's achievement, Neville and Jamie Carragher were asked to name a combined XI from Guardiola's current squad and Ferguson's Class of '99 on Monday Night Football. Carragher included six City players in his XI.
But Neville included himself and 10 other United legends. He explained: "The reason I’m picking this team is because this is the team that have done the treble and City haven’t yet, so I think the first thing we should say is let’s wait for the next few weeks and if they’ve done it then maybe we can start to integrate.
"I have got a second team I’ve selected but what I’m going to do is wait for his [Carragher's] disrespectful team first because to be fair, I wouldn’t swap any of those lads that played - if I was picking a Norwegian I’d pick Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over [Erling] Haaland! Those lads are like brothers."
What's your combined XI? Let us know in the comments below!
City need to overcome Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League to reach the final in Istanbul on June 10, with AC Milan and Inter Milan contesting the other tie. The second leg takes place at the Etihad on Tuesday night, with the tie level at 1-1.
In terms of the FA Cup final, that takes place at Wembley on June 3. Unlike Neville, Carragher is not waiting to discover the outcome of those games and has put Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland in his team.
Carragher explained: "I just went for Kyle Walker, I just think he had the edge over Gary's performances in the 1998-99 season. The other one is obviously Grealish. Ryan Giggs had that famous goal, but Grealish has got better numbers.
"Grealish has got five goals, seven assists, Giggs got three goals, one assist in that season in the league, that's why I've gone for him. But of course Ryan Giggs is a better player than Grealish, I get that... and you can’t not pick De Bruyne and Haaland."
Yet Neville was not impressed with Carragher for snubbing Giggs and Scholes. He replied: "I love Jack Grealish, I love Gundogan. But I’m not entertaining the conversation around Ryan Giggs over Jack Grealish and Paul Scholes over Gundogan."
Carragher then asked Neville why he's snubbed De Bruyne and Haaland. Neville said: "I have done, in a second team [including City players]. But I always felt I was being disrespectful to Yorkey and Coley [Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole].
"Yorkey’s record that season, I think he had something like 20 assists and 29 goals? It was an amazing record, so Yorkey has more assists and goals than de Bruyne all season.
"Obviously Haaland’s got more goals than Coley, but I felt like I was being harsh. If you’re being objective - which I don’t want to be in this company - you put de Bruyne and Haaland in as they’re world class players."
Neville eventually compromised by allowing Dias, De Bruyne and Haaland join his combined XI, with Carragher picking the right-back. Carragher then asked his Sky Sports colleague whether Ferguson's treble-winning side could beat Guardiola's current crop of players.
Neville replied: "What I would say is City’s football you can’t deny, but obviously we played against good teams that could play football. My view would be that we’d find a way somehow with the character in the team.
"We have maybe better options off the bench to come on and score goals up front with four strikers. City have got Haaland. but behind that - they’d maybe not need anyone behind that - but they’ve got [Julian] Alvarez. He’s a good player, but I think we’d have better strikers. We’d find a way. We’d have to do it in a different way to what City would."
Carragher was then given the final say on whether Neville should be picked ahead of Walker. He said: "Put him [Neville] back in, go on then."
