Mauricio Pochettino hits back at Neville’s “Blue billion-pound bottle jobs” comment.
The Blues failed to overcome a young Liverpool side in the Carabao Cup final after Virgil van Dijk’s header secured a 1-0 win for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Liverpool were missing as many as 11 first-team players in the final and heavily relied on young and inexperienced players.
Chelsea who spent £1bn in the past two years looked likely to win against an unversed Liverpool squad.
But the Blues failed to win their first trophy under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville branded the Chelsea squad as an expensively assembled team of bottlers.
“I didn’t hear what he said, but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it is similar,” Pochettino said.
“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. We made a few changes with [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chilwell in extra time.
“We are a young team and it is nothing to compare with Liverpool just because they finished with also a few young players. He 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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