Pochettino has theory on Neville's issue with Chelsea after "£1bn bottlers" jibe
Mauricio Pochettino reckons Gary Neville only got upset at Wembley because the Sky pundit is a Manchester United fan who was desperate for Liverpool to lose.
United legend Neville branded Chelsea the “billion pound bottlers” after their Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool on Sunday and that damning criticism has only turned up the pressure on Pochettino. Pochettino admits he is fed-up of the £1billion spending spree being levelled at his players for the reason expectation levels have reached sky high levels and it is all anyone ever talks about.
But Pochettino did at least afford himself a smile at Neville - who he regards as his “friend” - and to why he was so damning in his analysis of Chelsea. Chelsea boss Pochettino said: “He is Manchester United and wanted Liverpool to lose! That was a little bit of it. I don’t need to say anything more about what he said.
“I said before you can only get hurt when you are not sure about things that are true or not. But I think he was frustrated because he was disappointed with the result.”
Pochettino did also say that the billion pound price tag - how much Chelsea have spent since owner Todd Boehly took over the club - on big names like £100m-plus deals Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo is getting him down.
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“The problem is and it is so annoying is after eight months people always talk about, about and about, always this £1billion [figure]. I don’t know. It’s, I feel, unfair. It’s my view from here,” said Pochettino.
“Always it’s Chelsea and it always appears ‘one billion’ and you cannot fight against that idea. That is why we need to move on. When Chelsea lose it is always because of, because of, because of [spending too much]. No, the circumstances of Chelsea are the circumstances of Chelsea.
“When the new owners arrived with the intentions. They wanted to build something different from the past. That’s what we have to understand.
“I hear something, more than ever, in the media, on TV the last few days. I don’t know who was saying it, that Enzo Fernandez played in a World Cup Final. Yes, but when he started the competition at the World Cup, he was on the bench.
Neville blasted the manner of Chelsea's performance in the final (Getty Images)“Then two players got injured, all the focus was on Messi and Enzo didn’t have that responsibility. But now because of this type of amount (£106 million) you are telling me, people say ‘now you have got to win the game.'
“Because of the money, people say too much money, it is going to reduce the amount of time he has to learn and become a better player and deal with this type of pressure. For me, they have an amazing quality but they need time.”
Pochettino pointed to the fact that Chelsea also did not lose to Liverpool’s kids as the average age of their starting line-up was 23.9 years compared to 25.8. By the end of the game, Chelsea’s average age was 22.6 and Liverpool’s was 24.1.
Pochettino added: “That is an amazing thing because you say Liverpool had a young team - yes, but we were younger than them. We need to show them how we succeed, even if today it is painful. Because we are brave, really brave.”
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