Gary Neville has opened up on the two comments he regrets making while commentating on football.
After retiring from football back in 2011, Manchester United legend Neville joined Sky Sports and has been a regular on their football coverage for over a decade – whether it be as a pundit or a co-commentator.
Neville has never been afraid to say what he thinks on air and has come up with a whole host of memorable, off the cuff lines over the years. But there are two in particular which he does not look back with much fondness after realising the “hurt” caused.
Last year, Neville referred to Chelsea as “billion-pound bottlejobs” after Virgil van Dijk scored a last-gasp, extra time winner for a youthful Liverpool side in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
He was unimpressed by how the expensively-assembled squad performed on the big stage when Liverpool were riddled with injuries and had to bring in young kids.
But after delivering the phrase without too much thought about the repercussions, Neville asked the Sky Sports producer whether he was harsh with what he said and he also received a response with then-manager Mauricio Pochettino.
In a new interview, Neville compared the comment with a personalised remark he made about David Luiz “being controlled by a 10-year-old on a PlayStation” after Chelsea lost to Liverpool back in the 2011/12 season.
Speaking to The New York Post, Neville admitted: “When I said ‘Billion-dollar bottlejobs’ last year about Chelsea, sometimes you think ‘words, come back.’ It’s a good line, but it’s gonna really hurt. It’s gonna hurt Mauricio [Pochettino]. It’s gonna hurt some of the players. I didn’t intend that. I didn’t intend the hurt. But I wanted to punch with the line.
“I said about David Luiz that he’s controlled by a nine-year-old in the stands on a PlayStation. No doubt it was a great line. But it never left him. It hounded him throughout his career. Whenever he went missing and went into midfield or misplayed [a pass]. You have got to be careful and to be fair, there have been times when I have got it wrong. But I don’t always want that reaction. Sometimes I do, but sometimes I don’t.”
Gary Neville has been on Sky Sports since 2011. Image: Getty
Neville also had a notable exchange with Arsenal Fan TV after calling a supporter an “idiot “for demanding Arsene Wenger leave the club back in 2017.
And earlier this year, on his Stick to Football podcast, Neville explained what he meant by using the term “bottlejobs” – claiming that is something that he applies to the United team he played in.
“Bottle doesn’t mean cowardness, they just froze on the day, we froze in games sometimes, in Champions League semi-finals,” Neville stated.
“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.”