Gary Neville explained the context and meaning to his ‘billion-pound bottle job’ jibe aimed at Chelsea last weekend.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side lost 1-0 to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final in extra time, despite Jurgen Klopp’s men missing some key players.
In the aftermath, Neville made his now infamous comment that sparked a defensive response from Chelsea coach Pochettino, and the moniker could stick if results at Stamford Bridge do not meaningfully improve soon.
Speaking to Sky Bet , Neville explained his feelings on his outburst.
He said: “I think Mauricio Pochettino got asked about that [Billion Pound Bottle Jobs comment] after the game, and he’s right to respond to that because he’s asked directly after the game, it wasn’t a piece of analysis that was done 24 hours later.
“I’m not going to sit here and say that it was an instinctive and in-the-moment comment, I had one minute to think of that line. Peter Drury, the big moment after the cup final, that’s the commentator’s moment, and he was on for about 30-35 seconds. I knew that [Jamie] Carragher would come in next because I could feel him next to me, wanting to come in, Liverpool scored, and he literally jumped up and turned around to his mate.
“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 its one of the biggest moments this season, last minute goal,” and secondly, “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 ten 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 in 1998, against Arsenal – we’ve all bottled run-ins.”
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