Gary Neville admits his “billion pound bottlejobs” line may have been too “harsh” after he had a chat with a Sky Sports producer in the wake of Chelsea’s Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool.
Mauricio Pochettino said he believed the jibe was “unfair” despite admitting his team were playing for penalties, and Neville says it was that admission that convinced him had been right to say it.
Neville, speaking on Sky Bet’s Stick To Football podcast, revealed he was initially going to point the finger of blame at Chelsea owner Todd Boehly.
He said: “I got progressively angrier during extra time with Chelsea, and I thought to myself, initially I was going to use Boehly’s name, but I didn’t want to personalise it. Then I thought, ‘Should I say it, is it too strong?’ I was thinking that as I said it and sometimes when you think that you might think that it’s a reason not to say it, but I felt as though it needed to be said, it’s a harsh line.
“After the game I went to the producer and asked whether it was harsh. He said it might be a touch harsh, but he said, ‘We’re on television, in entertainment and it’s one of the biggest moments this season, last minute goal.’
“And secondly, he asked ‘Did you think they bottled it?’ I said that they froze in extra time, there is no doubt that they were playing with fear and froze.
“I was actually going to do a roll back on my podcast, the day after, and say that I shouldn’t have probably used that word ‘bottle,’ but when I heard that Mauricio thought the team were playing for penalties, I thought that it was the epitome of freezing.
“When I think of it today, people say it’s a great line, but I don’t think of it as a great line, I don’t feel proud about it. I remember my David Luiz comment 10 years ago, and I regret that because it was personal. I don’t personalise a line anymore. Bottle doesn’t mean cowardness, they just froze on the day.
“We froze in games sometimes, in Champions League semi-finals. Sometimes you do freeze – Manchester United, the year before they won the Premier League title, against Leeds they bottled the run in. We bottled the run-in, when we were without Roy (Keane) in 1998, against Arsenal – we’ve all bottled run-ins.”
After Chelsea responded to Carabao Cup disappointment by seeing off Leeds in the FA Cup on Wednesday, Pochettino spoke again about Neville’s criticism.
“I cannot be angry about (Neville),” he said. “With all my love to Gary, it’s not fair to use this type of word for a team that is so brave, a club that always fights for big things.
“What can we do? Only with this type of performance show that we are brave and that we can win games. Nothing to say, only to keep moving.
“It’s not important for us. Because we know how we are and who we are, and how we behave. We know why we lost the game against Liverpool. It’s nothing to do with this.
“We know that we are brave and that we are working really hard, For us, it’s not an important comment.”
