Neville turns back on Sky Sports host as he is CUT-OFF mid-rant in second blast about Chelsea ‘billion-pound bottlejobs’
GARY NEVILLE had his rant about Chelsea cut short by Dave Jones live on Sky Sports.
The Manchester United icon was in full flow when he was cut-off by Jones who was hosting Monday Night Football.
Neville was discussing Chelsea’s shortcomings during their 1-0 Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
But while trying to get his point across, colleague Jones was forced to interrupt him to keep the show ticking to its time restraints.
The MNF host said: “Gary thank you…” before Neville quickly joked back to him “Thanks Dave” and shot a thumbs up to the screen in the studio.
The 49-year-old then hilariously turned around from the camera and left Jones in floods of laughter alongside Jamie Carragher and Gael Clichy who were in the studio with him.
Neville had been discussing his comments on Chelsea’s last minute cup final heartbreak in which he described Mauricio Pochettino’s team as “billion pound bottle jobs”.
But the typically honest pundit admitted he was actually feeling some regret over his harsh words that followed Virgil Van Dijk’s Wembley winner, saying: “I feel bad now”.
Although he reiterated that he was still left extremely frustrated by Chelsea’s tactics which saw them overturned by an inexperienced Liverpool side flooded with academy graduates.
He said: “If you hear my commentary during extra-time I was getting angrier with Chelsea from the first minute until two minutes to go [when Liverpool scored].
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“I could smell the fear in Chelsea from the very first minute of extra-time when I said: ‘why are they sitting off them? Why are they letting these young lads grow’.”
He went on to add: “Maybe bottle is a very strong word, but [they were] playing with absolute fear, freezing.
“Whatever you want to call it – that’s what we saw in extra-time and ultimately I don’t want that tag to stick with them.”
Neville even admitted that during extra time there was a point where he didn’t know who a number of the players on the pitch for Liverpool were.
He said: “They made those substitutions and I actually pulled my headphones off, put my microphone down and said ‘Carra I haven’t got a clue who is playing for Liverpool here!
“‘There’s three or four players and I don’t even know who they are.”
Jamie Carragher made it clear that if Chelsea are to shake the nickname given to them by his punditry pal then they need to start lifting some silverware.
He said: “Billion pound bottle jobs, it’s a great line. And unfortunately for Chelsea, whether they like it or not, that line is going to stick with them until they win something big.”
There’s been a lot of backlash elsewhere for Neville’s sharp words with the likes of Gary Lineker and Ally McCoist speaking out against his criticism of the Blues.
McCoist told TalkSPORT: “I think [calling Chelsea bottle jobs] is unfair. It’s strong.
“They could have won it. I think it’s extremely strong and wrong to call them bottlejobs, but they do deserve criticism.”
While Lineker was in agreement when speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast.
He said: “I thought it was a bit strong. They could have easily won that game.
“I thought Cole Palmer could have won the game but it was a brilliant save from Kelleher.”
Chelsea boss Pochettino also made his feelings clear on the criticism aimed at his squad.
Speaking after the 1-0 defeat, he said: “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.
“Of course, we made a few changes with [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chilwell in extra time, it is true we didn’t keep the energy of how we finished the second half.
“But for sure I feel proud. I feel proud of the players, I think they made a big effort.
“We are a young team and, there is nothing to compare with Liverpool [just] because they finished with also a few young players. I think it’s impossible [to compare the two sides].
“He [Neville] knows the dynamics are completely different. I think it’s not fair to talk in this way, if he said that.”