Chelsea boss Villas-Boas sees red and takes a pop at Neville | Football News - There was no stopping Andre Villas-Boas as he reddened with rage at the thought of television pundits and Gary Neville in particular.
By the end of his seven-minute tirade, the Chelsea boss was swinging at Alan Pardew, too, for daring to link his injury problems to Mike Dean's failure to send off David Luiz at Newcastle last weekend. Read More :
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It did make you wonder if former Manchester United defender Neville has assumed an undercover role as Sir Alex Ferguson's new 'Head of Mind Games'.
'I have words to say on the comic criticism and lack of in-depth criticism from top ex-professional players,' fumed Villas-Boas.
'Most people don't even bother with what they say and perhaps I make them more important than they are. But the fact that they opt for the ridiculous means I have to defend myself and my players. I have to be aggressive. I think that's fair.
'Most of these people we are speaking about have a direct past related to single clubs, which are their favourite clubs, which in the end brings a likely biased position in their opinion-making.'
His description of David Luiz as a defender controlled by a 10-year-old on PlayStation still rankles. Alan Hansen has been a stern critic of Chelsea's defending this season but it is Neville who irritates Villas-Boas.
The Chelsea manager said: 'He (Luiz) is one of the best central defenders in the world; a player of tremendous aspirations and talent. You cannot say he's being controlled by a kid in the stands.
'That's ridiculous. He plays for the country (Brazil) with most (world) titles. So be careful what you're saying. I'm nobody to criticise his (Neville's) opinion but when he takes this ridiculous route I have to defend. And I'd say this to his face with most pleasure.
'What does Gary Neville know about our dressing room? How can you know? Have you been here? Do you know where Cobham is? You don't even know how to get here. You cannot speculate or invent. Some people can have more or less an idea. But not him. He cannot know.
'I'm normally indifferent. I am not watching the telly to see what these people say. But I was watching at that moment and I was gobsmacked.'
This led Villas-Boas to last week's incident at Newcastle when Luiz escaped a red card for a foul on Demba Ba, although the booking is enough to rule him out of Monday's game against Manchester City.
'Maybe I should get the card rescinded because it was an offside the linesman didn't give. This is the same manager who got a penalty at Old Trafford to get a 1-1 making a big scandal out of this. Then it was, "It got their players injured because David Luiz wasn't sent off". Come on!'
Earlier, Villas-Boas rejected Michael Ballack's idea that Chelsea lacked mental strength and claimed Manchester City were getting an easy ride from the media.
'The media darlings of the press are blue collar and not Chelsea,' said Villas-Boas.
'What they (City) have done has been immense but it has overshadowed what other teams have been doing.
'Sincerely, I think our season has been quite good. We are the second- best attack and we are a lot nearer to becoming one of the best defences in the Premier League.'
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