Neville returns to Sky Sports presenter after being interrupted mid-rant on live TV
GARY NEVILLE had his Chelsea rant interrupted by Dave Jones live on Sky Sports.
The Manchester United icon was in full swing when he was cut off by Jones, who was hosting Monday Night Football.
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Neville discussed Chelsea’s shortcomings during their 1-0 Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
But as he tried to get his point across, colleague Jones was forced to interrupt him to keep the show down.
The MNF presenter said: “Gary, thank you…” before Neville quickly joked to him: “Thanks Dave” and shot a thumbs up to the screen in the studio.
The 49-year-old then hilariously turned away from the camera, leaving Jones laughing alongside Jamie Carragher and Gael Clichy who were in the studio with him.
Neville had discussed his comments about Chelsea’s last-minute cup final heartbreak, describing Mauricio Pochettino’s team as “billion-pound bottle jobs”.
But the usually honest pundit admitted he actually felt some regret over his harsh words following Virgil Van Dijk’s Wembley winner, saying: “I feel bad now”.
Although he reiterated that he was still extremely frustrated with Chelsea’s tactics, which saw them toppled by an inexperienced Liverpool team flooded with academy graduates.
He said: “If you hear my comments during extra time, I got angrier at Chelsea from the first minute until two minutes to go. [when Liverpool scored].
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“I could smell Chelsea’s fear from the very first minute of extra time, when I said: ‘Why are they getting rid of them? Why are they allowing these young boys to grow’.”
He added: “Maybe bottle is a very strong word, but [they were] playing with absolute fear, freezing.
“Whatever you want to call it, that’s what we saw in overtime and ultimately I don’t want that tag to stick with them.”
Neville even admitted that there was a point during extra time where he no longer knew who some of the players on the pitch were for Liverpool.
He said: “They made those changes and I took off my headphones, put down my microphone and said, ‘Carra, I have no idea who’s playing for Liverpool here!’
“There are three or four players and I don’t even know who they are.”
Jamie Carragher made it clear that if Chelsea want to shake off the nickname given to them by his pundit friend, they need to start lifting some silverware.
He said: “Billion pound bottle jobs, it’s a great line. And unfortunately for Chelsea, whether they like it or not, that line will stay with them until they win something big.”
There has been plenty of criticism elsewhere of Neville’s sharp words, with the likes of Gary Lineker and Ally McCoist speaking out against his criticism of the Blues.
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McCoist told TalkSPORT: “I think [calling Chelsea bottle jobs] is not fair. It’s strong.
“They could have won it. I think it is extremely strong and wrong to call them bottle jobs, but they do deserve criticism.”
While Lineker agreed when speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast.
He said: “I thought it was a bit strong. They could have easily won that game.
“I thought Cole Palmer could have won the game, but it was a brilliant save from Kelleher.”
Chelsea boss Pochettino also made his feelings clear about the criticism of his team.
After the 1-0 defeat he said: “I have a good relationship with Gary and I don’t know if I can take this view that way. But I respect his opinion.
“Of course we made a few changes [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chillwell in extra time, it’s true that we didn’t keep the energy of how we finished the second half.
“But I am certainly proud. I am proud of the players, I think they have made a great effort.
“We are a young team and nothing compares to Liverpool [just] because they were also done with a few young players. I think it’s impossible [to compare the two sides].
“He [Neville] know that the dynamics are completely different. I don’t think it’s fair to talk like this when he says so.”
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