Gary Neville is not the most likable character and often only gets negative opinions of Chelsea. It’s clear he doesn’t like the owners and the way they’ve run the club so far.
Many people think that his opinions are often wild and out of line, but like everyone else, he has a right to his opinion.
If you remember, I appeared on his Overlap show a while ago and did a great job for the club. I did everything I could to get back to Gary. But he really should because he stands by his opinion. Why not?
He’s a pundit who gets clicks and that’s why companies like Sky Sports use him. It doesn’t change because it brings drama, so we have to accept it. The media hates Chelsea and that will always be the case, and to be honest, I actually like Chelsea better!
I’m sure Neville’s bottle job comment will cause a huge stir and Sky will lick their tongues at the amount of cash it will bring them in one way or another. That’s a real outcome for them.
First, let’s remember what Neville said and the context in which it was said.
“In extra time, Klopp’s kids faced off against a £1bn bottle job.”
Neville said in commentary after Chelsea went goalless against Liverpool in Sunday’s League Cup final.
Appearing on Monday Night Football, Neville exercised his right of reply to further explain the meaning of his comments.
“I’m not going to sit here and say it was an instinctive comment moment. It was instinctual because we didn’t know what was going to happen in overtime. Peter [Drury] Carla did it for about 25 seconds, about 30 seconds after the goal went in.
“If you listened to my commentary about Chelsea during extra time, I was angry at them from the first minute until about two minutes left.
“I could smell fear from Chelsea when they realized they were away from Liverpool. Why did they instill confidence in these youngsters and in Jurgen Klopp?
“There was a chorus of chants from the Liverpool fans for about five minutes as you could smell the smell of blood and fear coming from that blue shirt.
“At half-time, manager Mauricio Pochettino gave a message to a team with only two players in the starting lineup, Luis Diaz and Virgil van Dijk, that they had 15 minutes left to win or lose. I had to tell the players.
“They needed to leave that pitch with no regrets. Chelsea had to seize the moment and they shrunk.”
Having read the above, in my opinion he is not wrong here.
What’s wrong is calling Chelsea a bottle job. Because they’re not bottle jobs. Overall not so. I think the players this season have proven at times that they have good team spirit and can do it, and they’ve also shown us that they certainly have a cohesive spirit. think. I’ve been praising that a lot lately, and it’s obvious. We have often shown grit, fight, determination, intensity and passion. It existed, albeit with great contradiction.
We know they lack leadership and experience. That’s why they looked so nervous under intense pressure on Sunday. Only time will pass on that side.
But overall, this Chelsea team is no bottle job.
So Neville’s first comment to me was harsh and wrong. But the meaning was correct and the way he explained it afterwards was correct for me.
Chelsea bottled that game against Liverpool, not because they were bottle jobs, but because they didn’t have the experience yet or the prestigious manager didn’t have the enthusiasm. [not Malo].
But I would like to read Mauricio Pochettino’s comments about players playing for penalties, whether he ordered them or not is irrelevant. He’s the head coach. If you want your players to do something or stop doing something, you tell them so, guide them, direct them, coach them. It’s very simple. And no, I’m not buying the opinion about fatigue. That’s because there is no European football this season and we also have a week off while Liverpool play on Wednesday. That’s why I haven’t heard anything like that.
So we pulled away in overtime and closed the game. In my opinion Neville’s above comment is his 100% correct.
There will never be a better chance to beat Liverpool in the final. They depleted most of their star players and regular starters. And they brought in several players who had barely played senior football. They were there to get, but Chelsea hid instead of standing up. It’s just a matter of maturity, lack of leadership from the group as a whole and the coaching team, and lack of experience.
But calling Chelsea collectively Bottlejob is not correct, at least to me. In that sense, Neville was wrong. However, I ended up bottling, and this he claims there is a clear difference between the two terms.