Pep Guardiola and other managers of the best clubs have no right to complain about the busy schedule, according to everything is beginning co-host Ian Ladyman.
After watching his Manchester City side beat Chelsea 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday, Guardiola launched a stunning speech during an interview with the BBC, claiming the broadcaster had put welfare at risk. of his players by converting them into will play just three days after their Champions League quarter-final clash against Real Madrid.
The Spaniard was furious at the rapid turnaround and even threatened to reject “extra” requests from broadcasters unless things changed after his team put in a tiring performance at the national stadium.
But Ladyman has little sympathy for Guardiola and believes big clubs like City are only doing themselves a disservice by agreeing to play so many games each year.
“City have to play about 59 games this season, Liverpool played 62 games in that 1976-77 season when they almost won the treble and there was only one substitute,” Ladyman told Mail Sport. Podcast Everything is beginning.
Pep Guardiola was furious that his team had to play in an FA Cup semi-final just three days after facing Real Madrid.
His City players put in a tired display before beating Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley.
Mail Sport’s Ian Ladyman believes Guardiola and other senior managers have no reason to complain about the calendar
‘Times change, it’s not always appropriate to make the comparison, but I think it’s vaguely relevant there. But what is equally relevant is that City are only asked to play from Wednesday to Saturday. It’s like a normal week.
‘In fact, they played on Saturday at 5 o’clock. Often in the Premier League they are asked to play on Saturday lunchtime or at least 3pm. It is not the BBC’s fault that the Madrid match went to extra time. They couldn’t foresee that.
“Guardiola believes they should have been allowed to play on Sunday and that the Manchester United-Coventry match should have been on Saturday.
Well, first of all there are a couple of things to say. Chelsea have a Premier League game next Tuesday, City don’t play their Premier League game at Brighton until Thursday. If we move the City game to Sunday, Chelsea will only have two days of rest before playing their next league game. That’s the schedule. That’s what it is, you can’t change it.
“And talking about the well-being of the players is false because if the clubs cared about the well-being of the players they would be asking themselves ‘why do we accept an expanded Champions League next season in which there will be more games?’
‘Why did we agree to go to Saudi Arabia at Christmas to play in the Club World Cup? Why are we going to play the expanded Club World Cup in the summer of 2025? Why do we agree to all these things?”
Ladyman highlighted that City were very happy to travel to Saudi Arabia to play extra games and win the Club World Cup in December.
“That’s before we talk about pre-season tours to Australia, China, the United States and all the places the big Premier League clubs go.”
Last week it was announced that the FA Cup will eliminate replays from the first round onwards from next season, and Ladyman feels Guardiola’s complaints about the schedule are just another example of how big clubs only want to play games that They consider them worth it. .
“In all the big clubs in the country, this is not City’s thing, all the other big managers complain about the games,” Ladyman continued. ‘Why do they put their names on these schedules if they care so much?
‘I’m afraid, I’ve said it before, that big managers don’t mind playing too many games. They want to play the games they want to play. The smaller ones, FA Cup replays etc, they are again using it as a weapon to defeat the conditions of our game.’
Ladyman podcast co-host Chris Sutton was also taken aback by Guardiola’s rant, claiming the City boss could have rotated his squad more on Saturday if he had genuine concerns about the condition of his players.
He also insisted that City should accept having so many games at the end of the season as it shows they are right where they want to be in the hunt for trophies.
Chris Sutton also had little sympathy for City over the weekend, insisting that Guardiola could have rotated his squad more if he was so concerned about the players’ welfare.
“In terms of Pep and fatigue, as a professional player who has played, this is where you want to be at this stage of the season, involved in all competitions,” Sutton added.
“In terms of TV programming, clubs are happy to take millions of pounds and spend it on transfers, which helps them build a club.
“But I looked at the Manchester City bench at the weekend and I just listened to this bench and then made my own decision.” Ederson, Dias, Gomez, Gvardiol, Lewis, Kovacic, Doku, Nunes (a few pounds from Wolves) and Oscar Bobb.
‘That’s not a disaster, is it? And then you can have five substitutions on top of that. What do you complain about?