City just love the Cup
PEP Guardiola has leapt to the defence of Bernardo Silva after the Football Association asked for City’s observations over a social media post from the Portuguese midfielder.
Bernardo took to Twitter over the weekend to post what appeared to be a picture of Benjamin Mendy as a child next to a Spanish cartoon advertising confectionery brand Conguito, but was forced to delete the post after accusations it might have been racist.
The City team-mates have been friends since their days at Monaco and Mendy responded to Bernardo’s post with a smiley face emoji, but anti-discriminatory charity Kick It Out have since called on the FA to take action and the governing body are investigating the post.
If found guilty the 25-year-old could face a fine and a ban, but Guardiola has insisted there were no racial connotations to Bernardo’s post.
“Honestly, I don’t know what will happen. They should put their focus on another issue because they don’t know which guy you are talking about,” the City boss said after his side had beaten Preston in the Carabao Cup.
“Bernardo is one of most lovely people I ever met in my life. He speaks four or five languages and that is the best way to understand how open-minded he is and one of his best friends is Mendy. He’s like a brother for him.
“The image is not about the colour of the skin. He took a picture of Benjamin when he was young and he related it to this cartoon, which was quite similar for the image. Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy PEP Guardiola said the tender age of his new centre-back pairing makes no difference to him.
The City boss threw 17-year-old Taylor HarwoodBellis and 18-year-old Eric Garcia into the Carabao Cup fray against Preston and was rewarded with a clean sheet in a 3-0 win.
And the teenagers, who have played together many times at under-23 level, remain an option for the boss, with Aymeric Laporte and John Stones injured. Asked if he was worried that the two youngsters might be a little too green to be played together, he replied: “Do you see me concerned? I trust them. “We’d prefer John and Aymer here but this is why we have the academy. These two guys are captains of their national teams.”
Guardiola took Harwood-Bellis on the pre-season tour to the Far East after Garcia was injured, and he was short of central defenders. And the Stockport lad seized his chance with some impressive displays.
“I saw Taylor in China and I said ‘Wow, that guy has a good thing’. He had a lot of quality. “The leadership from Eric is really good. We see it every day in the training sessions. It is no problem to play with them.” Laporte is out until 2020 after knee surgery but Stones is on course to return soon. “John will be back after the international break but we can count on them (Garcia and Harwood-Bellis) when we need them,” said Pep.