Gary Neville names the 'personal' thing he most regrets saying on commentary after incident 13 years ago

Gary Neville has revealed the one thing he most regrets saying on commentary following his damning claim about Chelsea following their Carabao Cup defeat.

Neville caused a stir on commentary after branding Chelsea as "billion-pound bottle jobs" following Virgil van Dijk's header in the Carabao Cup final.

Mauricio Pochettino fired back at Neville's brutal analysis in his press conference.

The former Manchester United captain's claim was the talk of the latest episode of Stick to Football, brought to you by Sky Bet.

He revealed that he went to the Sky Sports producer after his comment to ask whether it was harsh or not.

Neville continued by saying he's not proud of his line before recalling his criticism of David Luiz, which he regrets to this day.

After Chelsea lost to Liverpool in the 2011/12 season, the pundit likened Luiz's performance to "being controlled by a 10-year-old on a PlayStation."

David Luiz in action for Chelsea against Liverpool. Image: Getty

Neville said: "After the game I went to the producer and asked whether it was harsh, he said it might be a touch harsh, but he said, 'We’re on television, in entertainment and its one of the biggest moments this season, last minute goal', and secondly, 'Did you think they bottled it?' I said that they froze in extra time, there is no doubt that they were playing with fear and froze.

"I was actually going to do a roll back on my podcast, the day after, and say that I shouldn’t have probably used that word 'bottle', but when I heard that Mauricio thought the team were playing for penalties, I thought that it was the epitome of freezing."

The 49-year-old added: "When I think of it today, people say it’s a great line, but I don’t think of it as a great line, I don’t feel proud about it. I remember my David Luiz comment ten years ago, and I regret that because it was personal. I don’t personalise a line anymore.

"Bottle doesn’t mean cowardness, they just froze on the day, we froze in games sometimes, in Champions League Semi-Finals. 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."

Topics: Chelsea, David Luiz, Gary Neville, Football

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Darren Till. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

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