Pep challenge to authorities
PEP GUARDIOLA has followed up his “ball-gate” rant by claiming the football authorities do not listen to managers or players.
The Manchester City boss criticised the Mitre ball used by the Football League in the Carabao Cup this season by saying no one consulted the people who have to use it – the players – although he declined the offer from the EFL to discuss his concerns.
“They never ask me, or any managers or players, about anything in football today,” said Guardiola, above. “Not here. Not anywhere.
“They decide absolutely everything in football. They decide competition.
“They decide which ball they are going to play with. They decide the time. They decide the schedule. They say go right, we go right. They say go left, we go left. They say that ball, we use that ball.
“They should consult the players, especially the players. The players and the managers don’t count for anything today in football.”
Meanwhile, Guardiola says he will not put pressure on central defender Vincent Kompany to retire from international football in a bid to ease his injury problems.
Club captain Kompany, who has been missing for two months with his latest calf problem, has hinted at hanging up his boots for Belgium even though they have qualified for next summer’s World Cup. “Vincent knows exactly what he has to do better than me,” said Guardiola.
“He knows his body. But the good news from our doctor in Barcelona was the same news the doctors told me here, so hopefully after the next international break, he will be ready.”
City go to West Brom today with Albion boss Tony Pulis pleading with club chairmen to be more patient with managers.
Crystal Palace, Leicester and Everton have all sacked their bosses after just nine games and Pulis has come under fire on social media after Albion’s run of only two wins in their last 18 Premier League games.
“With social media they have a free-for-all to do what they want to do and say what they want to say, which is fine,” said Pulis.
“But that tough time can turn very quickly. It would be nice if other clubs and other chairmen held their ground a bit more.
“You’ve got to take criticism. You’ve got to understand that you’re there to be shot at and people are going to ask questions at times. I accept it.
“No one has put a gun to my head and I’ve been through it before.
“That breeze is blowing a bit stronger so you’ve got to lift your head and keep walking through it.” JOSE MOURINHO was clearly keen to win the ‘phoney war’ before battle commences with Tottenham today.
The Manchester United manager gave Harry Kane’s absence short shrift and provided a different version to the Eric Dier “tapping-up” claims made by Mauricio Pochettino.
Pochettino, of course, was the man who dined with Sir Alex Ferguson in London as United began plans to replace Louis van Gaal early in 2016.
Typically, Mourinho could not resist a barb by insisting Nemanja Matic was always his first-choice target to fill the midfield anchor man vacancy in his team anyway.
Pochettino, in his autobiography, says he took exception to Mourinho’s overfriendly and lengthy conversation with Dier in the tunnel following Tottenham’s defeat at Old Trafford last December.
But Mourinho, keeping a straight face yesterday, insisted that if had wanted to know of Dier’s possible availability, he did not need to resort to such subterfuge – he would have simply mentioned it in one of his phone calls to Pochettino, a manager he says is a friend.
In the end, Chelsea’s surprise decision to sell Matic to United ensured that Mourinho got the player he really wanted.
“I have the player that I want to have,” he said. “Probably I have the player I didn’t think it was possible to have but we got the player I really wanted.”
Asked if that meant he wanted Matic ahead of Dier, he said: “I never said that I want Dier. I never say who the players are that I want.”
As for Pochettino’s claims in his book, he added: “I don’t know if it is Maurico’s words or it is his ghost writer, I really don’t know. What I do know, is that every season, during the summer, before every season he calls me and I call Mauricio and we ask about each other’s players to see if they are or not available.
“So I don’t know why I should speak to Dier on a football match day in the tunnel. Maybe what was written is to try to sell books. Maybe his ghost writer wants to make some money.” Conversely, he was quite happy that one of his own players, left-back Luke Shaw, spoke so glowingly about his relationship with Pochettino, who managed him at Southampton, while warning the defender he must stay fit if he is to have a future at Old Trafford, amid rumours of a possible swap deal with Tottenham’s Danny Rose. “I would be very disappointed if his words were different,” he said. “I am always disappointed when a player, because he has a new manager, says the new manager becomes the best and the old manager becomes very bad.
“Football is full of examples of lack of character. Luke Shaw was just honest.
“The manager that helped him come to the first team, the manager that helped him develop in the best moment of his career, is the manager he doesn’t forget, a manager he likes a lot, a manager that maybe one day he would like to be reunited again, so for me the perfect words that show Luke Shaw’s character in relation to the people he was