Ally McCoist has hit back at Gary Neville’s ‘unfair’ comments calling Chelsea ‘billion pound bottle jobs’ after their agonising defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.
The Blues were left heartbroken after Virgil van Dijk’s extra time header – just minutes before the game looked certain to go to penalties – secured a 1-0 win for Liverpool and shattered their dreams of a first trophy under Mauricio Pochettino.
Silverware for Chelsea this season would have been some achievement given their struggles this season under the Argentine – whose side are 11th in the Premier League – and they came close to beating an injury-hit Liverpool after a succession of chances from Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson.
And after failing to capitalise on those chances – as well as playing an inexperienced side that were missing key players Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Dominik Szoboszlai – Neville was scathing of Chelsea on commentary duty.
Liverpool managed to grind out the narrow result despite also turning to youngsters as late substitutes – Bobby Clark, Jarrell Quansah, James McConnell and Jayden Danns.
Ally McCoist has hit back at Gary Neville’s ‘unfair’ comments calling Chelsea ‘bottle jobs’
The Blues were agonisingly beaten 1-0 by Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday
The pundit said: ‘It’s Klopp’s kids against the blue billion pound bottlejobs. For Chelsea I’ve got no sympathy whatsoever.’
But speaking on talkSport, former Rangers star McCoist defended Chelsea after the ‘strong’ words from Neville – insisting Chelsea deserved to be criticised but insisted they easily could have won the trophy.
‘I think [calling Chelsea bottle jobs] is unfair. It’s strong,’ he said.
‘They could have won it. I think it’s extremely strong and wrong to call them bottlejobs, but they do deserve criticism.’
McCoist added that the game was evenly balanced and that either side could have won and referenced Jackson’s disallowed goal which was a ‘tight’ decision.
Virgil van Dijk netted with seconds remaining in extra-time to secure Liverpool’s tenth victory in the competition
Neville did not mince his words after Chelsea missed a succession of chances against an injury-hit Liverpool side
‘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.’
Pochettino himself also defended his side after Neville’s words that have caused a stir, saying he was ‘proud’ of his players and didn’t feel the comments were fair.
‘I didn’t hear what he said, but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it is similar,’ he said.
Pochettino defended his Chelsea stars after Neville’s criticism, saying they made him ‘proud’
‘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.’
