20th September, 2016
By Seun Bisuga
Sometimes I wonder if Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager and his city rival, Jose Mourinho ask why football coaches are called managers in England? I guess they don’t know. And my reason for asking this question is hinged on Guardiola’s latest irritating outburst on Yaya Toure.
Guardiola and Mourinho are two coaches that are highly respected in today’s game because they have won titles and have carved a niche for themselves at the top but when it comes to their attitude and man-management skills, I dare say they are illiterates whose behaviour is nauseating.
Guardiola telling Toure that he has to apologise to play again is the greatest show of childishness and pettiness. If he has issues with Toure, as a manager he can settle it behind closed doors and not wash his dirty linen in public.
Personally, I think Guardiola and Mourinho are power-drunk and their show of eccentricity is sickening and annoying.
Without meeting Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mourinho banished him to the reserves. And it’s same with Pep. Without having a word with Joe Hart, Guardiola made it clear that he cannot play as a keeper-sweeper, he did not even give him a chance to try.
These duo think because they are managers of the club they can do what they like. I remember former Barcelona striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic having a go at Guardiola after he left the club.
In his autobiography, “I am Zlatan”, the former PSG forward labelled Guardiola a “spineless coward”. He then went on to state that the former Barcelona manager Guardiola was a “brick wall” during his time in Catalonia.
Following Barcelona’s semi-final exit in the Champions League to Mourinho’s Internazionale side in 2010, Ibrahimovic spoke of how he confronted his manager in the dressing room. “I yelled: ‘You haven’t got any balls!’ and worse than that I added: ‘You can go to hell!’ I completely lost it, and you might have expected Guardiola to say a few words in response, but he’s a spineless coward. He just picked up the metal box, like a little caretaker, and then left, never to mention it again, not a word.”
Speaking further of his time at Barcelona, he said: “I’d already got the impression that Barcelona was a little like being back at Ajax, it was like being back at school. None of the lads acted like superstars, which was strange. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, the whole gang – they were like schoolboys. The best footballers in the world stood there with their heads bowed, and I didn’t understand any of it. It was ridiculous.
“Everyone did as they were told. I didn’t fit in, not at all. I thought, just enjoy the opportunity, don’t confirm their prejudices. So I started to adapt and blend in. I became way too nice. It was mental. I said what I thought people wanted me to say. It was completely messed up. I drove the club’s Audi and stood there and nodded my head. I hardly even yelled at my team-mates any more. I was boring. Zlatan was no longer Zlatan.”
Not that I like Zlatan’s approach to things but Guardiola left him with very little choice. Again, he is starting to disrespect Yaya Toure by asking him for an apology for comments made by his agent, Dimitri Seluk.
For me that is very petty, it is not different from a child that is sulking. People don’t gain respect by asking for it, it simply plays out by itself.
I don’t care if Toure apologizes to Guardiola, but one thing is certain he has lost my respect, even if he plays the best tiki-taka football in the world.
He should go and learn to respect his players.
In England, managers are well-rounded people who manage people and deal with shortcomings rather than go to the media and demand apologies from their subordinates.