Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk with the Carabao Cup he lifted on Sunday. — AFP Photo

Paul Kennedy

I’m one of those incredibly rare Liverpool supporters that actually likes Gary Neville. Yes, you read that correctly.

As a player, he despised my football team, and for me, that’s fine. Manchester United players should hate Liverpool. It should be engrained in their DNA.

As a pundit, I think Neville speaks a lot of sense. He clearly knows his football and has a great dynamic with his fellow talent. If you’ve not watched ‘The Overlap’ with him, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane, you really should.

After Liverpool beat Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, Neville described the Londoners as “Billion-pound bottle jobs”.

This refers to the amount of money Chelsea have spent on their squad, and the fact they were beaten by a Liverpool team plagued by injuries, forcing manager Jurgen Klopp to field a number of youngsters from the academy.

Neville has come under fire for his remark, particularly from Chelsea supporters, and the following day the former defender admitted his words were harsh, but he stood by what he said.

Truth of the matter is, he was 100 per cent correct. Chelsea, or rather their American businessman owner Todd Boehly, have spent a gargantuan amount of cash in a desperate bid to buy success and it’s backfired in a major way.

In the Premier League, they are currently in 11th position, and in the early hours of Thursday morning, needed a 90th minute winner to spare their blushes at home to Leeds United, a team from a division below them.

Mauricio Pochettino is a manager under pressure and I genuinely believe if Chelsea had lost to Leeds, then he would have probably been sacked.

Many Chelsea fans I’ve heard on various social media platforms are already calling for his head. One even suggested Sam Allardyce should take over.

Sorry Sam, don’t get your hopes up, things at Stamford Bridge aren’t that bad yet.

And while Chelsea fans are clearly up in arms right now about the goings on at their club, I can’t deny the fact that I’m loving every minute of it.

Sunday’s cup final win was one of the best I’ve ever seen, and believe me, I’ve seen an awful lot. The nature in which Liverpool lifted the trophy was as good as it gets.

An injury ravaged team, forced to field a number of incredibly inexperienced players, winner with just two minutes to go in extra time, and best of all, against Chelsea.

Finals rarely get much better than that. Who said a team with kids would win nothing? Certainly not Gary Neville. — VNS