You neeed Pep Talk!
GUARDIOLA LET HIMSELF DOWN WITH OUTBURST
PEP GUARDIOLA needs to take a long, hard look at himself.
Maybe with Manchester City having dominated so overwhelmingly this season, the Spaniard has started to think he’s Pep God-iola.
It was staggering he did not see the hypocrisy of his ridiculous anger at Fabian Delph’s sending off for an ugly lunge at Wigan’s Max Power on Monday.
Just as amazing was the view of several pundits that Delph did not deserve to see red.
Studs-up challenges, at speed, from muscular superfit athletes – as all top-flight footballers now are – have to be outlawed.
Who cares what it used to be like in the old days?
The game is now played totally differently, at a pace and power the likes of Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris and Norman ‘Bites Yer Legs’ Hunter never got near.
How Guardiola thought he had the right to rage in the tunnel at Latics boss Paul Cook is impossible to fathom.
The City boss made a huge fuss, and rightly so, about the lack of protection given to his players following a bad injury to Leroy Sane.
So the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss could have scored points galore by accepting Delph’s challenge was a bad one and he deserved to go.
Guardiola did not only lose the FA Cup tie, and the chance of the quadruple, he also lost the moral high ground.
Surround
As for all this guff about referee Anthony Taylor getting out the yellow card first and then replacing it with a red, well he made a mistake initially but then got the decision spot-on.
It does not help officials, of course, if players surround them and try to intimidate them. Following the flying challenge, first it was Wigan players and then, when the red was shown, seven City stars crowded round Taylor.
Football desperately needs to learn from rugby, where the referee is king and treated with respect.
Scenes like these set an appalling example and the FA need to crack down on it. They should decree that any player who confronts a referee, rather than speaking to him with courtesy, is booked – retrospectively if needed.
Of course it will never happen because footballers, like managers, have now become so self-important and self-obsessed.
It is ironic Guardiola’s lack of grace has started to show at a time when big rival Jose Mourinho is making such an effort to be well behaved on the touchline.
The Manchester United boss will have loved seeing Guardiola lose his head – and the sympathy vote – four days ago.
It will be interesting to see how Guardiola behaves if City lose to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup Final on Sunday, particularly if any decisions go against him.
Pep needs to have a pep talk with himself.
To misquote Rudyard Kipling: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same, you are the man for Man City, my son.”