Mauricio Pochettino has once again commented on Gary Neville’s dig at Chelsea following their 1-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.
What did Neville say?
Neville took a swing at Chelsea’s performance after Virgil Van Dijk’s 118th minute winner. He said: “In extra-time, it’s been Klopp’s kids against the blue billion pound bottle jobs.”
This angered a lot of Chelsea supporters and coach Pochettino. Many were quick to point out the average age was lower in Chelsea’s team (23.9) than in Liverpool’s (25.8).
What was Pochettino’s response?
Ahead of Chelsea’s FA Cup fifth round match against Leeds, Pochettino took out his frustrations over Neville’s comments and tried to explained the reasoning behind them.
He said: “I have a very good relationship with him but that doesn’t mean that maybe sometimes he can be unfair. “In my opinion, that was not fair, the comment. He is Manchester United and wanted Liverpool to lose! That was a little bit of it.
“He was frustrated because he was disappointed with the result. He said, ‘I love Pochettino and I was disappointed in this moment’ and he translated his emotions there. I don’t believe he feels like this.
“When you say something like this it is a big impact and big noise and it is like ‘wow’. He said he feels bad because of what he said.
“Always it’s Chelsea and it always appears ‘£1 billion’ and you cannot fight against that idea,” he said. “The problem, which is so annoying, is after eight months people always talk about this £1 billion [figure]. I feel it is unfair.
“When Chelsea lose it is always because of, because of, because of [spending too much]. No one says anything negative about [Liverpool or City]. It’s like, if you win, you win, if you lose, you lose, it’s OK. Nothing happens. But in Chelsea it is completely different because of the pressure of that £1billion.
Malo Gusto is 20, Cole Palmer is 21. [They say:] ‘But you paid £50 million’. But he’s the same age as a guy who is playing for Liverpool. That is how you judge the team. That is an amazing thing because you say [Liverpool] is a young team — yes, but we were younger than them.”
What has Neville said about his comments?
Neville was in the commentary box for the Monday Night Football which saw West Ham hammer Brentford 4-2. He explained his thought process before he slammed the Chelsea squad.
“I’m not going to sit here and say it was an instinctive commentary moment”, he said.
“I mean it was instinctive as I didn’t know what was going to happen in extra time. Peter [Drury] did about 30 seconds after the goal went in and Carra had about 25 seconds.
“If you heard my commentary of Chelsea during extra-time, I was getting angrier with them from the first minute to around two minutes to go.
“I could smell the fear in Chelsea when I noticed they were sitting off Liverpool. Why were they letting these young lads and Jurgen Klopp grow in confidence?
“There was a chorus from the Liverpool fans for about five minutes because they could smell the blood and the fear in those blue shirts.
“At half-time, Mauricio Pochettino had to get the message into his players that they had 15 minutes to beat or not lose to a side that only had two players who would get into their starting XI – Luis Diaz and Virgil van Dijk.
“They needed to leave that pitch with no regrets. Chelsea had to grab the moment but they shrunk.”
Where can I watch Chelsea’s next game?
Chelsea play Leeds United in the FA Cup fifth-round on Wednesday 28th February at 7:30pm. This match will be broadcasted on ITV4. Alternatively, you’ll be able to stream it on ITVX, if you’re out and about.
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