Derry aim is to fright the Whites
SHAUN DERRY has revealed he had to cut his long hair at Leeds because his shaggy style scared his baby daughter.
And now the Cambridge United boss wants to give his old team a fright in the FA Cup.
The former toughtackling midfielder led the Whites to the 2006 Championship play-off final when he was the mane man.
“It was a bet with Gary Kelly – I didn’t want to cut it because, like Samson, I didn’t want to lose my strength at the time,” said Derry.
“I got some stick for that barnet, that’s for sure. I went about 18 months without cutting it. And it coincided with me getting married at that time as well.
“If anybody comes to the house and looks at my wedding photo, they think my wife’s been married before! They don’t realise it’s actually me. The bet was just to keep it, because, at that point, I was really on form.
“I was superstitious as a player, too. I had some bizarre and random superstitions and that was one of them.
“When Lillie was born, she didn’t stop crying for 48 hours and I thought I was scaring her.
“My wife Jo said: “You’d better get your hair cut”. So, I did and she stopped crying. But then I did lose my strength – I got injured!”
Derry suffered an unhappy end to his Leeds career when Dennis Wise effectively accused him of leaking the team to his former club Crystal Palace in February 2007.
“I’ve gone on record many times before to absolutely quash those rumours,” said Derry.
“And I will do so again. It was an absolute lie of the highest order. A scandal. I’m sure that will be a headline along the way and if it is, it is.
“I make no apologies in backing up my name. What happened at the time was a disgrace. It wasn’t even a leak. It was a lie.” MANCHESTER CITY want to set up a meeting swiftly between Pep Guardiola and referees’ chief Mike Riley to help the Catalan understand English referees.
The City manager admitted last week that he was still learning about the way Premier League officials operate after midfielder Fernandinho was sent off for the third time in six weeks.
City are rock-bottom of the Fair Play League. They have picked up four red cards and 40 yellow cards in the Premier League this season – despite dominating possession stats and committing fewer fouls than 13 other teams.
And the club’s hierarchy share Guardiola’s fear that his players are suffering at the hands of inconsistent officials.
It has now reached the point where the club wants Riley (below) to come up with an explanation and they hope it will give Guardiola a better grasp of the mindset of the officials. City have also had two players sent off in the Champions League. Guardiola is reluctant to publicly criticise officials. He knows the Premier League is unique in its level of physicality. But the petulant media interviews he gave after 10-man City beat Burnley last Monday were a consequence of his belief that referees aren’t giving his players the same protection as the opposition.
He was furious about the aerial challenge on keeper Claudio Bravo that led to a Clarets goal – and made his feelings clear to referee Lee Mason at the final whistle.
City’s bid to have Fernandinho’s red card against the Clarets overturned was kicked out by the FA during the week and he will be unavailable for City’s next three matches.
Guardiola said: “We are dominating the ball, yet we are picking up the most cards.
“This is something I don’t understand.
“If you look at when I was at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, we were always at the top of the Fair Play League.”