Pep Guardiola is nicking a living at Manchester City
Manchester City were a little unlucky to lose 5-1 to Liverpool in the Champions’ League. Raheem Sterling should have been awarded a penalty in the first game; and City should have been just 3-2 down when the referee wrongly disallowed a goal that had gone in off Liverpool’s James Milner. But to Stan Collymore, a Cup result was all about puncturing the Pep Guardiola bubble:
Tweeting under @StanCollymore, the former Liverpool player notes:
“Changed the game”
“Never seen anything like this ”
“Revolutionary”
“Favourites for the quadruple ”
“Greatest team ever in English football ”Not one or two, the most sycophantic press pack ever towards one man, desperate for the exclusive 1 on 1 sit down.
Sycophantic cobblers.
You might suppose that tweeting about football is simpler than managing a side laden with expectation. After all, this is is what Stan Collymore was saying about Jurgen Klopp in his February 11 2018 column for the Daily Mirror:
“Jurgen Klopp is taking Liverpool back in time – but not in a good way. Remember the days when Newcastle United were everyone’s second-favourite team 20-odd years ago?
“Exciting, pleasing on the eye, laden with goals and a touch of the unexpected every time they step out on the pitch. Of course, neither Keegan nor Reds boss Klopp pay anything like the attention they should to defence.
“But what other common theme runs through both of those sides? Between them, these two great entertainers have won absolutely nothing of note. They have become increasingly desperate on the Kop – and no wonder, because all I keep seeing is Klopp defend the indefensible.”
So says Stan Collymore. That’s S.T. A…
And this is what Collymore said of Guardiola in 2016:
“If he thinks he’s going to turn up and outplay everybody in the Premier League, and that teams like Watford, Leicester, Bournemouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace are going to let his Manchester City side have the ball for 90 per cent of the time and pass pretty patterns around them so they can get a result, then he is absolutely deluded…
“In fact, he is beyond deluded. And if he thinks he doesn’t need to teach tackling or one-on-one combat in training then he’ll be going back to Spain with his tail between his legs.”
Or maybe not.
And that’s not all. Before the Champion’s League match with Liveprool, Collymore opined: “The fact remains he [Guardiola] has struggled in the latter stages of the Champions League when he hasn’t had Lionel Messi at his disposal.”
No. He has not. A team managed by Guardiola has failed to reach the CL semi-finals once. And then Collymore adds: “If Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Jock Stein, Brian Clough and Carlo Ancelotti, or any number of managers, had had Guardiola’s Barcelona team, with Messi in it, they would have won the European Cups he did.”
Since Guardiola left Spain six years ago, Barcelona have reached the Champions League final once. And this week they lost in the quarter-final to Roma. And, yes, Messi was playing.
As for City topping the Premier League from first to last, Collymore noted in August that the season “is shaping up to be the most competitive rollercoaster ride in the history of the Premier League”. But as City soared he told us: “City are playing in the worst-quality top flight.”
Still, at last Stan’s got a lucrative career picking holes in Guardiola. That man’s nicking a living. That’s P. E…
Posted: 11th, April 2018 | In: Back pages, Liverpool, Manchester City, News, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
