Gary Neville the pundit: the case for and against

PROS:
Not short of an opinion
Trenchant opinions make for exciting punditry, and Neville is unlikely to be another blank canvas of blandness à la Jamie Redknapp. Told Michael Vaughan in a Telegraph interview that the press and FA were hypocrites: "One minute [the press] will do an article with you saying there is no passion in football. Next week they go around saying they want to ban you for three matches, fine you a hundred grand because you have celebrated a goal. It's mixed messages and a lot of it is driven by the press. It raises the question of whether the FA are strong enough to step away from it and look at it for what it is. There is no real consistency in the response." Also upset Carlos Tévez so severely ahead of a Manchester derby in 2010 that the City striker called Neville a "bootlicking moron".

A modern face
Andy Gray played in the 1980s - the decade before Sky Sports invented football. Neville's career began in 1992 - Sky's Year Zero - so the appeal is obvious for the broadcaster. Also played with many current pros, which means he is likely to use nicknames: a big plus.

Could conceivably work across several sports
Gary's father, the wonderfully named Neville Neville, played cricket for Lancashire and Gary himself was supposedly good enough to make a career out of the game. Surely Gary picked up a good enough a working knowledge of the sport to make the dream pairing of Neville's gruffness alongside Michael Holding and David Lloyd a reality? In the unlikely event of Sky deciding to take netball out of Eurosport purgatory Gary could also call on his sister Tracey, who represented England in the sport.

CONS:
Cannot be used for any games involving Liverpool
Nothing would be worth the ire of thousands of furious Scousers if Neville was ever allowed near a Liverpool game. Once told a United fanzine "I can't stand Liverpool, I can't stand Liverpool people, I can't stand anything to do with them." He riled Liverpool's fans further by running half the length of the pitch to celebrate wildly in front of them after an injury time winner scored by Rio Ferdinand in 2006.

Facial hair
In Richard Keys, Sky have just lost a presenter known primarily for his extraordinarily hairy hands. Distracting on normal TV, disturbing in HD, Keys' hands were downright terrifying in 3D. Neville also struggles in this area, currently wearing the most suspicious sporting moustache since the IAAF's unscheduled morning visit to Caster Semanya's house. The prospect of watching Neville's lip-warmer in one dimension, never mind three, is unlikely to provoke a surge in upgrades.

May stir up a worker's uprising
Neville's loyalty is best exhibited by being that rare thing in modern football, a one-club man. But he's also proved himself loyal to those alongside him to the point of being a disruptive influence. Before Euro 2004 Neville led the England squad in threatening to strike over Rio Ferdinand's ban for missing a drugs test. What happens if Jeff Stelling is suspended after footage leaks of him calling Paul Merson rude names? Despite their best efforts with the presenters of Sky Sports News, Sky is some way off being able to replace its workforce with androids.