Pep Guardiola leading the way for new wave of hypocrite managers after VAR moans
IS IT me? This could be a question I will be asking a lot in my columns this season.
But is it me… or are a lot of our football managers morphing into utter hypocrites?
They might think they are heroes, but to me they are a self-indulgent bunch.
I watched Pep Guardiola wax lyrical that an accidental handball had denied his all-conquering Manchester City side yet another win, and how VAR had robbed him of the three points against Tottenham.
HYPOCRISY
But surely this couldn’t have been the Pep I vividly remember just a few months ago demanding the need for technology to be brought in after his team crashed out of the Champions League.
The one who was left fuming that Fernando Llorente’s goal which decided the all-English European tie was scored with a handball — and insisting that VAR simply has to be used to rule on such crucial matters.
Now we have replays being used, and it doesn’t suit him, he’s got a problem with it.
That smacks of hypocrisy. If you look at football, it’s full of hypocrisies. Whether it’s the elite clubs getting all the money and telling the rest to go boil their heads.
Or when sides are prepared to pay agents £40million to get a deal over the line but cannot come up with decent ticket prices for the fans.
When managers who have been handed jobs with no credentials soon after stopping playing suddenly start bemoaning players for making the mistakes they used to themselves.
And the pundits who get paid a fortune on TV who happily say it how it is in private but never have the guts to do so in public.
Look at the Rafa Benitez saga at Newcastle. Riddled with hypocrisy.
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Fans who have sided with Benitez, the boss who had been appointed by . . . yep, Mike Ashley — a man who can do no right, albeit is sometimes justifiably criticised.
And Rafa has been able to use that by peddling the mantra, having been paid a king’s ransom over three years on Tyneside by the owner, that he left because of trust issues with the club.
A boss who opted to snap up a £12m-a-year role in the backwater of Chinese football, having endlessly and incessantly broken that trust he was supposed to have with his boss by constantly briefing against him in the media.
His sole focus was to advance his own opportunities, whether it was for a bigger job or more money.
One of the biggest hypocrisies of all is the expectation of the fans themselves, demanding owners must come through the door, give them exactly what they want in terms of elite players, without caring less about who they are or where they got their money from.
And the fans — who having seen money splashed out on their sides — then complain about the owner having no value for club and that the culture has changed from what it used to be.
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Fans who scream their demands for more signings to be made and new deals be handed out to good players, and then moan when the price of the season ticket has gone up as a result.
Are any of these hypocrisies? My guess is that if it walks, talks and eats like a duck, then yes it’s a duck.
Listen to Simon Jordan’s Final Word every Sunday from 5pm-8pm on talkSPORT. Tweet @sjopinion.