Gary Neville admits he ‘feels bad’ for Chelsea ‘billion pound bottlejobs’ jibe but insists Blues ‘shrunk’ in extra-time of Carabao Cup final defeat against Liverpool youngsters… before pundit is cut off by Dave Jones mid-rant!

• The Man United legend labelled Chelsea as ‘billion pound bottlejobs’ on Sunday
• But Gary Neville has now backtracked on his initial comment about the Blues
• Chelsea were gutless to play for penalties. Liverpool have a cause, Mauricio Pochettino’s side are soulless – Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off podcast

Gary Neville has admitted regret after describing Chelsea as ‘billion pound bottlejobs’ in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final defeat against Liverpool, but was hilariously stopped mid rant by Sky Sports host Dave Jones.

Neville embarked on an impassioned rant about his comments that eventually had to be cut short by Jones who was trying to keep the show on-track with its very specific time restraints and caused the Man United legend to turn his back on him.

The player-turned-pundit was in the commentary box for Liverpool’s eventual League Cup win at Wembley and lashed out at Chelsea when Virgil van Dijk headed in the game’s only goal deep in extra time.

The former Man United and England full-back produced a now-iconic reaction as the goal nestled in the back of the net and used Chelsea’s lavish spending under co-owner Todd Boehly against them.

Chelsea have spent close to £1billion in transfer fees since the Boehly/Clearlake Capital takeover in 2022 – often paying inflated fees for young players with potential that have so far largely fallen short.

Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino hit back at Neville’s scathing analysis during his post-match press conference and Neville has now offered further explanation on the meaning behind his initial statement. 

‘I feel bad now. I’m not going to sit here and say it was an instinctive commentary moment. It was instinctive because I didn’t know what was going to happen in extra-time, Neville told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.

‘But Peter [Drury] did about 35 seconds after the goal, Carra did about 25 seconds and I was getting angrier. If you hear my commentary during the extra-time, I was getting angrier with Chelsea from the first minute of extra-time to two minutes to go because 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?’ Carra’s just mentioned it.

‘Then Jurgen Klopp started to grow. I remember there was a chorus, a song, that Liverpool fans were singing for about five minutes because they could smell the blood and the fear in those blue shirts. 

He continued: ‘And I got to half-time of extra-time and I said that somehow Mauricio Pochettino or those players have got to work out that if they got into this position at the start of the season and told themselves they’ve got 15 minutes against a Liverpool side who’ve only got two players who would make their starting XI normally, which are [Luis] Diaz and [Virgil] van Dijk, that they would snap their hand off, grab this opportunity, don’t have regrets.

‘I was just [coming from] a playing point of view, not to have regrets of a team not seizing the day and the moment, grabbing the opportunity. Chelsea shrunk – and I use the word shrunk – and maybe ‘bottle’ is a very strong word. 

‘But playing with absolute fear, froze, whatever you want to call it, that’s what we saw in extra-time yesterday.

Neville offered an even deeper explanation for describing Chelsea as ‘bottlejobs’ that suggested they were scared of attacking in the additional 30 minutes of play and claimed that Pochettino’s revelation that his side was playing for penalties confirmed his intentions.

The 49-year-old also added that there was an ‘instinctive’ element to his words, stating: ‘I’m not going to say words like ‘man up’. But there’s an element here of this is football at the highest level, where you’ve got to perform under scrutiny. 

‘And actually, Dave, I was in a position at the end of the game where I thought ‘it is a harsh word, bottled, and I was only referring to the last 30 minutes of the match, because I thought Chelsea did quite well in the first 90 minutes.

‘But then I heard afterwards that Mauricio Pochettino said he felt like his team were playing for penalties, it almost cemented the thought in my mind that they did freeze. Because whoever, in a team that is playing against such a weakened Liverpool side, with three kids on the pitch who to be fair found things very difficult in the final minutes of normal time, why did they do what they did? Look, does it make it more difficult? That’s not the purpose of why I said that yesterday.

‘I’m here, basically, to work for Sky Sports and deliver lines that I feel instinctively passionate about.’