Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and his midfielder Fabian Delph both let themselves down with a couple of graceless interviews after the Hammers had battled hard to restrict them at the Etihad yesterday.
Quite what they had expected of David Moyes’ Irons is incomprehensible after they decided to hit out at the way the Hammers had approached the game.
Delph – speaking to Sky Sports – said: “It was difficult, teams seem to come here and get every man behind the ball, not interested in anything but parking the bus.”
That he should pass such a remark at all shows a deep misunderstanding of his own team’s qualities and the need for us or any other team to restrict them.
To throw it in at all was indeed entirely graceless but probably marginally “better” that his manager’s who decided to attack a brilliant performance by Adrian with some ill considered words.
Speaking to Match of the Day he said: “We started really well but we lost our patience. We didn’t have any rhythm because Adrian was taking 30 seconds every time..”
Had he decided to preface the words with a compliment or to about his countryman’s performance it may have just about been acceptable. Instead he and his team are showing an arrogance I have usually associated with their neighbours.
What Delph is saying is……we struggle to dominate teams that come to defend, we want teams to come here and roll over, so we don’t have to work to hard for our mega bucks.
Why does nobody in media ever highlight the blatant and constant fouling and pulling of shirts man city players are instructed to perform every time they lose the ball?
THAT is breaking up momentum of the opposing teams and because they’re are lunging in they avoid yellow cards as they’re deemed ‘minor’ fouls.
It’s pure unsportsmanlike behavior but pep knows he can get away with it. It also saves the city players’ fitness as they don’t have to bust a gut chasing back against a break.
It either shouldn’t be allowed to happen or if it’s good enough for them and they get away with it, we ought to be doing it too.
Classic Barcelona tactics, I used to watch them and couldn’t believe how much cheating they got away with, they also loved to throw in a theatric dive when they hadn’t even been touched all aimed at building pressure on the officials and then capitalising on officiating mistakes, Pep knows the team with the ball the most will generally get the most decisions and weighs the odds in his favour using it to build more pressure, that is as much a Guardiola hallmark as the ticky tacka football philosophy.
Guardiola doesn’t mind slashing against Adrian because he is not his countryman or fellow citizen (in both ways). Adrian is from Spain, and Guardiola has repeatedly talked about him being Catalan and supporting the secession movement.
Besides that, I agree it was lack of class to start talking about playing 11 in their own box blabla. Does he really think he is entitled to demand other teams to play the way that will fit him the most ? Just deal with it. Since he mentions constantly what Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG have to deal with week in week out, deal with it yourself too. And be more gracious, or you and your team will really be hated.
I personally do not think that comment by Guardiola to be offensive, if you really want graceless then Wenger’s your man – he is always graceless win or lose and must suck lemons for a pastime.
OK, Guardiola could have paid tribute to a terrific performance by Adrian before his time=-wastiing comment, but what he said was true, the extending of time to enable a breather and to wind up the opposition a bit did start at about 3 minutes into the game by Adrian and at throw-ins and free kicks. That’s part of the game when playing sides like City, they were the home team, massive favourites to win and it was up to them to find a way round it. Sure it was tough, it will get tougher for them too.
Does anyone think we would say anything different if the boots were on the other feet?
Troll off mate ! Not welcome on here spud ! Or is it mancc.
I don’t think we would have complained like they did, agree with you about Wenger he and Guardiola both seem to think teams should play the beautiful game against them as demonstrated by his rant at Redmond (where he was complimentary supposedly) he was reported to have told Redmond you should have attacked us, Redmond said he was following his managers orders, probably Guardiola had a plan to exploit Redmond being in a forward position that he couldn’t execute and he was furious at the discipline of the Southampton team certainly it was an odd moment in that game.
Nothing said about the delph dive then that lead up to the first goal? Or the 3 mins of et the muppets wasted ? Oh that’s right ? Their man city and that’s OK ! Sterling goes down at the slightest touch as does debryne and Silva and Jesus and sane ! Typical Spanish cheating brought to england by these cheats ! Win at all cost ! Teams need to start leaving their foot in like they do too ! Fantastic football played by cheats 👏👏👏 well played guardiola you hippo critical Muppet cheat 💩💩💩💩
Agree Laz. 5 Live, 606, Sky, etc noj e of them talked about it just that City gey another late winner. Def biased.Rice had absolutely no contact w Delph & he gets a card for Simulation no free kick no Adrian save goes to throwout & then they get a goal. That changes the game & was the most obvious dive I’ve seen all season (maybe 1 other up there) but especially with replay.
And Rice gets booked early for first foul at 16m yes was a foul but he was going for ball Otamendi does same thing later no card. Def biased referring & proper calls we get a point at least.
If I was Delph I’d keep my mouth shut after that & he gets praise for being a good mid after game which he is but don’t bring up his Dive.
Niasse gets 3 match ban for simulation w contact & was all over the news by this time. Doesn’t help us know but Delph should get a ban of they are cracking down on diving like they say.
Feks me off to mate !! The FA ain’t worth two Bob ! Far to much power in a sport that pays its own way and they take their bit and live in multi million pound houses ! The mafia couldn’t touch these ********s or the pundits who never ridicule them when needed ! Its bent , plain and simple , as are the refs ! 😕
Well that’s rich coming from a manager who now openly encourages the lilkes of Sterling to dive at every opportunity…. Even as early as less than 5 minutes gone, Sterling dived theatrically to try and win a penalty. He should have been carded there and then. Its becoming a weekly occurance with him.
Not just him mid1 lol! You have to look at the officials and the quicker the video tech gets in place the better , these cheats will soon learn they can’t get away with it ! But the officials are just as bad as the players ,be it bias or just plain braindead ! 😉
Didn’t watch motd was it pulled up about delphs dive or conveniently over looked ! He should be looked at and banned if he did ! On the playback on the game he wasn’t touched ? And sterling defiantly went down struck by a feather ! If I was massuaku I would have broke the flash little c###s legs if he patted my head like that ! Deformed little 💩like a pansy on ice 😈
It wasn’t brought up & no one is talking about it just that City win againnw late goal & even hearing Delph stepped up is great mid he is good player but cheated badly & reffkng his biased.
Fuming about that like I said above w Rice Otamnedi & others. If he doesn’t bet a Ban there whole talk of cracking down on simulation will be pointless & Niasse will be thinking at least I was touched.
I think they should ban for diving if there is no contact
Sounds like you care if the diving and referee bias is brought up on MotD……. for what? to what end?
Pep does appear to be a little graceless, although he is speaking in a 2nd language, so may be forgiven a little ?
Perhaps his time wasting dig is aimed at the managerial tacticians more than player?
and in fairness, West Ham players slowed the game at every possible opportunity?! Briliant!
Cast you minds back to Jan 2014 following away 0-0 draw at Chelsea, and how ‘graceless’ Jose Mourinho was….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/25956108
The hipster pundits all have man crushes on Guardiola because they think he is cool. The way he behaves on the touch line with his ridiculous hand waving is not cool. Launching into Redmond last week (when the bloke had just seen a hard fought draw snatched away) was not cool. Same applies yesterday. Cool would have been to praise Hammers for their hard work,determination, say we had given them a good game & caused them some problems. What does that cost.? Again he had won the game. A cool person is gracious in victory and defeat. Zlatan (who is cool) said he is ‘not a man’. Enough said.
You are right he even has clothing sponsors which is absurd
Zlatan totally slated him in his book. I know that has a bit of sour grapes about it because he wasn’t getting picked. But top managers deal with that by talking to the player. According to Ibrahimovich Guardiola dropped him then just avoided speaking to him – hence the stuff about ‘not a real man’. I know the ‘experts ‘ love Guardiola & sneer at people who say he has just been lucky in getting jobs with the best players. They are entitled to their opinion but in my book he is massively over rated. Even if he is a good manager he has showed this week that he has no class.
I remember there also was a big controversy with Etoo, which he did not want. That was just before the Ibrahimovic saga. Etoo scored a magnificent goal on one occasion, rushed to the sideline to celebrate and hug Guardiloa, and Pep looked at him with those “don’t touch me” eyes. Very ugly.
But all this goes back to his playing days. He was a very cynical and dirty CDM. Now that he is manager/coach, the cynical side is still there, it just manifests in a different way.
In the seventies and eighty’s west ham and city supporters got along OK as we both hated the scum down the road ! But the club now thinks its bigger and better than everyone else !
The players there have no class like the old school of Lee summerbee corrigan etc all English by the way ? That’s the problem in the game today ! British football has lost its identity , money has killed it! I have no time for any club anymore as they have no time for us ! Even leicester think their 💩 don’t stink ! Diving and leaving the foot in !!
Guardiola and the worshipers can go do one ! Fekin sheep ?😎
Unfortunately it is now Laz, I don’t think its the supporters though, most are still working class like us, they do play some pretty special football which should raise the level of the rest of our teams sooner or later, here is looking forward to that COYI !!!
It sounded to me as if they did not sing until they went ahead. My ears are going but I swear I could not hear Blue f****** Moon until then. It was like a morgue in the first half. I know they will say West Ham fans have been giving the team stick, leaving early etc but can you imagine our place- even the LS- if we had won 11 on the trot or whatever. If we had one two on the trot ffs. I think I am not unlike a lot of Hammer fans & I can say this in all honesty because I have said it here many times-I would not want my club to become what City are. Yes, I would like us not to be in a relegation battle every season, but they can keep their brilliant manager, their millionaire players, their championships, oil money & probably their CL win & stick them where the sun doesn’t shine.
Was going to add – they think they have everything but their club has lost its soul. We are losing all our games & we might well lose our place in the PL. But I would rather that happens than we end up like City.
I look at it this way 32 ! We condemn our players who dive ! They don’t ! They expect it ! They want success over pride ! they’ve turned into vultures perched on top of their council flat dropping doodoo on those below them ! People like guardiola degrade the sport and IMO mouriniho is a perfect example of creating tensions and bad feeling with the mind games ! These people are 😉
Lowlifes !😉
Please take down that picture at the top of the story. I am going to punch my computer!
Don’t you think we are heading in the same direction (losing our soul) number 32?
Sorry, meant number 64! Never could do numbers!