Gary Neville has revealed that he spoke with Sky Sports producers about his commentary of the Carabao Cup final on Sunday. Chelsea were beaten 1-0 by an injury-stricken Liverpool side, prompting the former England defender to label the team ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’.
Speaking on The Overlap, 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. 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.”
