Pep’s men not crowd pleasers
after a 38,000 Champions League turn-out against RB Leipzig on Wednesday night.
The Spanish boss even hinted he would quit if the City faithful aren’t happy with him. Yesterday an unrepentant Guardiola said: “I said nothing wrong after Leipzig.
“I only said we played an incredibly tough game and that it will be incredibly tough against Southampton.
“I never complained about how many came or didn’t come.
“I have never done that in my life. I am grateful even if 85 or 100 people came.
“As always for me it doesn’t matter. I don’t run up and down the touchline. I can’t move.
“What we have to do is play better for the people who come here to stay with the team they love and to make them happy.
“When the game isn’t good I feel bad for them. At the end they come to see a show and want to enjoy it.
Shocked
“That’s why I am in this business. So I feel a bit guilty because we didn’t play good.”
Guardiola has been shocked by the fallout from the episode.
And his miserable week was completed when Raheem Sterling had a last-minute goal disallowed for offside.
He added: “Right now I don’t understand this subject, asking me about what happened.
“What I said is, ‘Guys come together for the next game’.
“Now I say the same, ‘Please come on Tuesday night against Wycombe in the Carabao Cup, please come to be with us.’
“Listen, everyone has their own life, sometimes they can come, sometimes not.
“Sometimes they don’t want to, but we have to do our job like we have in the last five or six years.
“We had more than one year without them and it was not the same, football without the fans is not the same.
“I’m still a bit shocked why people asked me about the crowd when for five years they haven’t. So thank you for coming.”
However, Southampton will feel hard done-by yesterday after a penalty award and a red card for Blues defender Kyle Walker were both overturned on the recommendation of the VAR.