26 February 2024 , 13:47
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Gary Lineker has hit out at Gary Neville and believes his scathing comments made at Chelsea are "strong" after the Blues lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool.
Neville branded Mauricio Pochettino's side the "blue billion-pound bottle-jobs" after failing to beat a Liverpool side who were missing several of their best players, including Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Chelsea had chances to win the match, but were punished for not converting any of them as Virgil van Dijk headed home the winner for Liverpool in the 118th minute.
Despite coming close to scoring, Neville had no sympathy for the Blues and argued the game was there for the taking as Liverpool had several youngsters on the pitch come extra-time. "It's Klopp's kids against the blue billion-pound bottle-jobs," the Sky Sports pundit admitted. "For Chelsea I've got no sympathy whatsoever."
Reflecting on what Neville said, Lineker believes the comments were unfair. He told The Rest Is Football Podcast : "I thought it was 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."
Meanwhile, Ally McCoist also jumped to the defence of Chelsea. He told talkSPORT: "I think [calling Chelsea bottle jobs] is unfair. It's strong. They could have won it. I think it's extremely strong and wrong to call them bottlejobs, but they do deserve criticism."
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McCoist added: "I mean the game could have gone either way, Liverpool's disallowed goal, Jackson's disallowed goal, which dear me, look how tight that was. And then you've got Van Dijk's header, the game was on a knife edge and it was a flick of the coin.
"So, I'm certainly not going to be as critical of Chelsea and Pochettino as some of the pundits are. But, what an opportunity it was for him to get his first piece of silverware."
Chelsea have spent over £1billion in transfers since Todd Boehly took over from Roman Abramovich in May 2022. However, the Blues have regressed in performances and results, and currently sit 11th in the Premier League, 17 points behind fourth-place Aston Villa.
Mauricio Pochettino has fired back at Gary Neville (Getty Images)Pochettino was also asked about Neville's jibe, and said: "I didn't hear what he said, but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it is similar. I have a good relationship with Gary and I don’t know if that’s how I can take this opinion. But I respect his opinion.
"Of course, we made a few changes with [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chilwell in extra time, it is true we didn’t keep the energy of how we finished the second half.
"But for sure I feel proud. I feel proud of the players, I think they made a big effort. We are a young team and, there is nothing to compare with Liverpool (just) because they finished with also a few young players. I think it’s impossible (to compare the two sides). He (Neville) knows the dynamics are completely different. I think it’s not fair to talk in this way, if he said that."
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