Pep Guardiola had a rather incredible excuse for Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.
City were unable to move to within two points of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League after a defeat in north London.
Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game in the first half with City rarely troubling the home side.
But why were City so lacklustre?
Guardiola’s incredible excuse after Man City lost to Spurs
Well, according to Guardiola, it was because of the journey from Manchester to London.
“Coming to London is like going to, I don’t know, northern Europe,” Guardiola said. “It is 4 hours 20 minutes, 4 hours and a half to get to a hotel. It’s so exhausting to come to London, I’m sorry. We need to come back to Manchester and prepare the game against Aston Villa.”
Really, Pep?
Is travelling four and a half hours on a luxury coach really exhausting?
The Premier League better allow Man City to play all their matches at the Etihad from now on…
What else did Guardiola have to say other than moaning about the travel?
What did Guardiola say after Man City lost to Spurs?
“Normally when we win it is a real team and when we lose it is not,” Guardiola also said. “I have a lot of gratitude for these players.
“I always try to do my best. I said many times, I knew that we were not the same after winning a lot – me the first when I talk about that – but the way we try to go and fight for every ball until the end, we try until the end. I always try to do the next step.
“It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We have to try to do it now, we are sad. Tomorrow we will watch the game, reflect and then think about Aston Villa – that will be tough- with our people and fans. It will be a long season for everyone and we will try to continue.
“We are a team that scores goals but I could not expect against Tottenham to create a lot of chances. We created in the beginning but they defended with nine players really well, well organised, the squad is fantastic that they have.
“It’s not easy to break down but we had enough to score goals. We’ve had missed penalties – I always had the feeling that we play well against them but for some reason we are not able to win. It is the reality.”
Haaland to ‘divorce’ Man City as his ‘anger’ with Guardiola sees their relationship ‘crack’
Erling Haaland is reportedly ready to ‘divorce’ Man City as he has a ‘very distant’ relationship with Pep Guardiola, who has created a ‘bad atmosphere’.
The prolific striker only joined Man City last summer. They activated his £51m release clause to recruit him from Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund.
Haaland has been in stunning goalscoring form for the Premier League holders this season. He has netted 31 goals in just 27 appearances for them this term across all competitions.
Despite this, Man City find themselves chasing Arsenal in the title race and some have boldly argued that Haaland has made them weaker this season.
Guardiola’s side are having to adapt their style for Haaland and while they do not always get it right, they are quite frightening to watch when they are at full tilt.
But Spanish outlet Nacional are reporting that Haaland’s relationship with Guardiola is ‘starting to crack’.
The report claims that Guardiola is making life difficult for himself this season as ‘several players accused him of being the main responsible for the bad atmosphere that is currently being felt’.
They then allude to Joao Cancelo ‘growing tired’ of Guardiola before his loan move to Bayern Munich last month. This is while Bernardo Silva is also ‘planning to leave’ in the coming months.
Though the ‘big bombshell’ is that Haaland has a ‘very distant relationship’ with Guardiola. They put two and two together and presume that this is down to him being ‘very unhappy with the style of play proposed by City’.
The report adds that this could ‘end up triggering an unsalvageable divorce with Guardiola, and his subsequent departure’. How dramatic.
Unsurprisingly, Nacional then proceeds to link Haaland with Real Madrid, who are ‘very attentive’ to his situation.
The forward’s ‘anger’ with Guardiola is ‘incredible news’ for Real Madrid as president Florentino Perez feels that he is the ‘best possible successor for Karim Benzema’.
The Spanish giants could well opt to ‘wait patiently’ until Haaland’s €200m release clause becomes active in 2024.
Last month, Ben Jacobs reported that Haaland’s release clause ‘can only be triggered by non-Premier League clubs’.
‘The more he succeeds, of course, the more interest he’ll attract, but it’s not true that there’s a Real Madrid-specific release clause, and Pep Guardiola has gone on record denying this,’ Jacobs wrote for Caught Offside.
‘In fact, there’s no active release clause in his contract, though things will change a little in the summer of 2024 when a €200m release clause starts to kick in, and it can only be triggered by non-Premier League clubs.
‘This will also decrease the longer Haaland stays at Manchester City, but the clause doesn’t mean a great deal – if anyone outside the Premier League wishes to trigger it, they’d still ideally not want to match its terms.’
Source: givemesport.com; football365.com
