FINAL INSULT
Chalobah admits Nev criticism was tough to take after pain of defeat as former United star ‘rolls back’ in bottlegate war of words
CHELSEA’S Trevoh Chalobah has admitted the pain of losing the Carabao Cup final was made worse by biting criticism from Gary Neville.
But the Blues defender revealed heart-to-heart talks among players and staff this week brought the club together before reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Conor Gallagher’s 90th-minute winner against Leeds kept alive Chelsea’s hopes of silverware and qualifying for Europe this season.
The win followed the extratime defeat to Liverpool at Wembley when Sky pundit Neville branded the Blues “billion pound bottle jobs”.
Former Chelsea trainee Chalobah said: “The last few days have been really tough. You could just see after the game as well in the changing room that everyone was so down. It was silent.”
Asked if the post-final backlash had made the defeat harder, he said: “We try and block out all the noise. We are all human beings and it can affect us somehow and it did.
“But as footballers, we’ve got to bounce back. It’s a motivation. The boys are really hungry now. That loss stabbed us in the heart and we’ve got to show now what we are about.”
Neville (left) yesterday revealed he was “going to do a roll-back” on his use of the word “bottle” but said: “When I heard that Mauricio (Pochettino) thought the team were playing for penalties, I thought that it was the epitome of freezing.”
The Manchester United legend told the Stick to Football podcast: “I don’t think of it as a great line, I don’t feel proud about it. I remember my David Luiz (Playstation) comment 10 years ago and I regret that because it was personal. I don’t personalise a line any more. Bottle doesn’t mean cowardice, 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.”
Former England youth international Chalobah made his first start of an injury-hit season as Chelsea set up a rematch of the 2021 FA Cup final against Leicester.
“We are all in this together. It’s not an individual thing with the manager in one corner, we are all together,” he said.
“It has been like this throughout the season. And we showed we will fight for him.”
GARY NEVILLE was speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet