The cheeky message a Starbucks barista sent Phil Neville on the Premier League's opening weekend

Phil Neville saw the funny side after a Starbucks barista sent him a cheeky message to kick off the new football season.

The England women’s team manager popped into his local branch of the American coffee chain on Saturday for a brew on the opening weekend of Premier League fixtures.

Starbucks are famous for getting people’s names wrong when writing down an order on their white cardboard cups – but this time it was no accident.

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Neville received his coffee labelled ‘idiot’ with a smiley face from an employee keen to have a little dig at the former Manchester United and Everton player.

Social media users believe it was a ploy from Starbucks to get some free advertising as they knew the ex-defender would post it on social media.

Neville has a bit of a strange history when it comes to coffee after admitting in a 2015 interview for BBC Radio 5 Live that he didn’t know how to make a cup.

The Three Lions coach explained that he asked a journalist at is home what he’d like to drink without being fully prepared for what the answer might be.

“When he replied coffee, my heart sank because I thought: ‘how do I do that’,” recalled Neville.

“I ran into the kitchen and I thought I am not going to poison this guy so I rang my wife.

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“The problem I then had was how much milk to put in. I forgot to ask my wife how much. To be fair, he is still alive.”

Neville’s former club Man United kicked off the season with a win on Friday while another of his old teams, Everton, were held to a draw.