CITY SPECIAL Pickford is warned off summer City move
JORDAN Pickford would take a ‘backward step’ if he joined City to sit on the bench, Sunderland boss David Moyes has warned.
The 23-year-old has been one of the few positives from the Black Cats’ dismal season and has been nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
Pickford is one of a number of English players Pep Guardiola is monitoring ahead of another busy summer at the Etihad.
And, although Sunderland look certain to be relegated, Moyes believes Pickford should think carefully about his next move if he wants to be England’s No. 1.
“What Jordan can’t afford is a year not playing,” he said.
“It would be a backward step if he wasn’t going to be a No. 1 keeper.
“I don’t think it would do him any good at all if he was to spend a season as a No. 2.”
Claudio Bravo and Willy Caballero have both struggled between the sticks for City this season and it is one of the areas Guardiola will surely look to address.
And Moyes believes Pickford would be more than capable of playing for the Blues one day.
“The difference with Jordan is he’s young and he’s under contract, but he is good enough to play for just about any club,” he added.
“He’s only 23 and maybe needs more maturity before he becomes the absolute real deal.
“But, as long as he keeps himself right and does the right things. he’ll be okay.” WHEN Pep Guardiola lost his first match in charge of Barcelona, the reaction of the fans was predictably extreme.
The new coach had been a Nou Camp hero as a player, but losing his first game in charge at newly-promoted Numancia – the paupers of La Liga – was verging on unforgivable.
There were 40,000 empty seats as Barca kicked off their home campaign against Racing Santander after the local press and radio had been flooded with emails, letters and howls of outrage.
An online poll found that 86 per cent of the Barca fans did not believe he was the man for the job – and that Jose Mourinho should have been chosen ahead of him.
So it came as something of a shock to the Catalan when, after his City team had been booted out of the Champions League and then failed to beat Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea, they were politely clapped out onto the pitch for the home game against Hull.
And while Guardiola appreciated the civility of that kind of support, you get the feeling that, under that veneer of approval, he actually WANTS the fans to be harder on the players – and on himself.
He said: “That doesn’t happen in Italy or in Spain. That’s why I’m so, so glad for the fans we have, because for the first time in my life I have experienced that.”
But he also said: “Sometimes when you realise you cannot lose, when you feel the pressure, the real pressure, and the players make a step forward, you have to create something and work with something. Do the players believe they cannot lose? We need time to put something in their heads and the hearts of the players.
“If you want to become a stronger club and stronger team you cannot drop points at home. The difference is the mentality, not the quality which is always there.”
The small number of Barcelona fans who travelled to Numancia had reacted with verbal abuse and gestures aimed at both Guardiola and president Joan Laporta.
And the reaction after Santander managed to hold a dominant Barca team 1-1 in that first home game, was one of alarm, and doubts were already being expressed about the raw young coach who had done such a good job with the club’s B team.
He was backed by his mentor and Barca legend Johann Cruyff, who, in his newspaper column, described the Santander draw as one of the best performances in years.
And the agony did not last long, as Sporting Lisbon were beaten 3-1 in the Champions League and the team then looked unstoppable in a 6-1 win at Sporting Gijon. Guardiola has said that he felt ‘alone’ after those first two games at Barca – until Andres Iniesta popped his head around his door and told him that the players were behind him and his methods. His false start was soon followed by four glorious years, and the fans were given no reason to grumble. But Pep and his players knew, even amid the shower of honours, that a run like the one City had – of defeats to Monaco and Chelsea, and insipid draws with top four rivals Liverpool and Arsenal – would bring a strong reaction. City fans are, in general, a grateful lot – the traumas of the 90s have moulded them into a group who, apart from the odd grumpy exception, don’t demand too much, and they can see the progress which Guardiola is making. It means they accept the setbacks more easily. Maybe that will change as younger fans who have known only success become the mainstream – and maybe the pressure that brings will help the club, rather than hinder it. Stuart Brennan