Gary Neville reveals truth behind Chelsea “billion pound bottle jobs” comment

Gary Neville has explained his thinking behind his iconic “billion pound bottle jobs” commentary line about Chelsea in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool.

Chelsea missed a whole host of chances and conceded an 118th minute goal in extra time to succumb to defeat to a Liverpool side who were severely depleted by injuries.

The Reds turned to some of their young academy products in extra time and yet the Blues, despite fielding a side full of multi-million pound signings, couldn’t turn that advantage into victory and a trophy.

Neville was in the Sky Sports commentary box when Virgil van Dijk headed home the winning goal and said: “It’s Klopp’s kids against the blue billion-pound bottle jobs.”

Neville asked producer if his commentary line was too harsh

The commentary line instantly went viral and feels like a moment that will stick in the annals of football history.

Neville has revealed on his Stick to Football podcast that he asked his producer if he was too harsh and he has discussed why he went so strongly in his verdict.

“I think Mauricio Pochettino got asked about that [Billion Pound Bottle Jobs comment] after the game, and he’s right to respond to that because he’s asked directly after the game, it wasn’t a piece of analysis that was done 24 hours later,” Neville said.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that it was an instinctive and in-the-moment comment, I had one minute to think of that line.

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“Peter Drury, the big moment after the cup final, that’s the commentator’s moment, and he was on for about 30-35 seconds. I knew that [Jamie] Carragher would come in next because I could feel him next to me, wanting to come in, Liverpool scored, and he literally jumped up and turned around to his mate.

“I got progressively angrier during extra time with Chelsea, and I thought to myself, initially I was going to use Boehly’s name, but I didn’t want to personalise it, then I thought, should I say it, is it too strong?

“I was thinking that as I said it and sometimes when you think that you might think that it’s a reason not to say it, but I felt as though it needed to be said, it’s a harsh line.

“After the game I went to the producer and asked whether it was harsh, he said it might be a touch harsh, but he said: ‘We’re on television, in entertainment and its one of the biggest moments this season, last minute goal, and secondly, did you think they bottled it?

“I said that they froze in extra time, there is no doubt that they were playing with fear and froze. I was actually going to do a roll back on my podcast, the day after, and say that I shouldn’t have probably used that word ‘bottle’.

“But when I heard that Mauricio thought the team were playing for penalties, I thought that it was the epitome of freezing.

“When I think of it today, people say it’s a great line, but I don’t think of it as a great line, I don’t feel proud about it. I remember my David Luiz comment ten years ago, and I regret that because it was personal.

“I don’t personalise a line anymore. Bottle doesn’t mean cowardness, they just froze on the day, we froze in games sometimes, in Champions League Semi-Finals.

“Sometimes you do freeze – Manchester United, the year before they won the Premier League title against Leeds, they bottled the run in. We bottled the run-in, when we were without Roy in 1998, against Arsenal – we’ve all bottled run-ins.”

Gary Neville was speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet.