Simon Jordan expected “a little bit of bristle” from Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino after Gary Neville “effectively called them cowards”.
Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk’s glancing header secured a 1-0 win for Jurgen Klopp’s side, who were missing as many as 11 injured players for the Wembley showpiece and relied on young, inexperienced players to come on late in the game.
Chelsea had the likes of £100million midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo on the pitch and were able to turn to almost £150m worth of talent from their own bench.
After Van Dijk – who had controversially seen a header chalked off by VAR in normal time – headed in the winner, Sky Sports pundit Neville, the former Manchester United and England defender, said: “In extra time it has been Klopp’s kids against the blue billion pound bottle jobs.”
Defending his team, Pochettino said: “I didn’t hear what he said, but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it is similar. I have a good relationship with Gary and I don’t know if that’s how I can take this opinion.
“But I respect his opinion. We made a few changes with [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chilwell in extra time. But it is true we didn’t keep the energy of how we finished the second half.
“I don’t know how you can describe this situation. But I feel proud. I feel proud of the players, I think they made a big effort. We are a young team and it is nothing to compare with Liverpool just because they finished with also a few young players.
“He knows the dynamics are completely different. I think it’s not fair to talk in this way, if he said that.”
But Jordan thought Pochettino’s comments should have been “a little bit more prickly” after Neville essentially called Chelsea “cowards”.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Jordan said: “I take this as a reason why I don’t see him winning very much with Chelsea despite my protestation that they’d win something over the next three years.
“Not with Pochettino, I don’t think. I always thought he would get them close and up the pyramid or up the table certainly.
“Neville must have been practicing that line all week with his little Overlap gang and being quite pleased with himself to get it out on air.
“Calling a team bottlejobs, you are effectively calling them cowards.
“I would expect a manager, he doesn’t have to dance to anybody’s tune, but I expect a little bit of bristle.
“Maybe something was lost in translation and that is just the nature of the beast but I personally would like to see my manager be a bit more robust with that observation and a little bit more prickly about the sentiments of my team.”
