Gary Neville says he feels bad for calling Chelsea ‘billion-pound bottlejobs’
Gary Neville has now taken responsibility for his poor comments on Chelsea following their 1-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. The former Manchester United manager had labeled the Blues’ loss as ‘billion-pound bottlejobs.’
Acknowledging his comments, the former United skipper expressed regret for making those remarks. Neville, who previously tried his hand at management before becoming a pundit, couldn’t achieve significant success in that role.
During the Carabao Cup final, when Virgil van Dijk scored the header in the 118th minute, Neville’s remark became infamous. The England full-back took a dig at Todd Boehly and Chelsea’s significant spending, branding them ‘billion-pound bottlejobs’ when the referee blew the final whistle, sealing another domestic cup defeat for Chelsea at the hands of Liverpool.
But the former player has now come to terms with his poor comments, and now Neville has provided a fresh explanation of his assertion, , and told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football (h/t Mail Sport):
‘’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 owns up to his poor comments.
It’s positive that Gary Neville has expressed regret and apologized for his comments, especially considering the young and relatively modestly paid squad at Chelsea. Such remarks may have been more warranted if the club had high-earning players.
However, given the amount of money our owners have spent, pundits will doubt why the team is not producing results despite recruiting so many players and we might see more such remarks in future. Neville’s comment, despite his apology, has caught on and one suspects we will not hear the end of it unless the team picks up significant silverware.
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- Chelsea becomes the first-ever English side in football history to lose six consecutive domestic cup finals
At some point, we won’t have to escape but accept reality, but the best thing we can do is ignore those statements and keep our players from getting bothered by them and do their talking on the pitch.