MANCHESTER UNITED legend Roy Keane has teased Gary Neville over his “blue billion pound bottle jobs” comment.
Neville left fans stunned during the Carabao Cup final when he described Chelsea as “blue billion pound bottle jobs” in extra-time.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side had just conceded a Virgil van Dijk header with two minutes to play.
The Blues had £105million man Enzo Fernadez on the pitch at the time as well as Moises Caicedo – the most expensive player in British football – and £88.5m winger Mykhailo Mudryk.
Meanwhile, due to various injury issues Liverpool were forced to play youngsters Jayden Danns, 18, Bobby Clark, 19, and James McConnell, also 19, until the final whistle.
Chelsea went on to lose 1-0 but Pochettino branded Neville’s comment as “unfair”.
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During his post-match press conference, he said: “We are a young team and (it 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, he knows the dynamics are completely different.
“I think it’s not fair to talk in this way, if he said that.”
Neville’s comment was a topic of conversation during this week’s episode of Sky Bet’s Stick to Football Podcast.
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And the full-back’s former team-mate Keane was quick to tease him about it.
When discussing score predictions from the weekend, Neville was told that he got three out of six correct, meaning he picked up six points.
However, Keane was quick to joke: “You bottled it,” before the room erupted into laughter.
Earlier in the episode, Neville admitted that he was “not proud” of the comment.
He revealed: “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.
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“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.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
