13th October, 2017
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says Pep Guardiola’s comments about his side’s reliance on Harry Kane were “very disrespectful” and “sad”.
The Manchester City manager described Spurs as the “Harry Kane team” when discussing his side’s title rivals.
The striker has scored 11 goals in seven games for Spurs this season.
“[Guardiola] was part of the big success at Barcelona and I never said it was ‘the Lionel Messi team,'” Pochettino said on Friday.
According to BBC, Guardiola described Chelsea and Manchester United as his side’s rivals to win the Premier League earlier this month, before adding: “We saw again the Harry Kane team scores every day two or three goals.”
Pochettino said that Guardiola was “excited” after his side’s victory over Chelsea, and joked that he struggled to “keep his position and be a gentleman”.
“It doesn’t affect me but in the reality it was very disrespectful for many people,” the Argentine continued.
“Everyone deserves to be recognised. When many people took the words, it was very sad and for many players that are here it is strange but, in my case, I didn’t take it in a bad way.
“It wasn’t disrespectful to myself. For a lot of people it was unnecessary. But we need to move on.”
Tottenham host second-bottom Bournemouth at Wembley on Saturday.