Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was spotted on stage as Noel Gallagher performed during the Teenage Cancer Trust show at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night.
Gallagher has made no secret of being a City superfan after rising to fame with Oasis in the 1990s before forming another band in 2011, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
He has also taken a particular shine to Guardiola since the Spaniard’s arrival at the Etihad Stadium in 2016 and some may have briefly believed he had convinced the 53-year-old manager to join him on stage on Thursday after he was pictured behind Gallagher.
But it wasn’t the real Guardiola as Gallagher instead tumbled after a cardboard cutout.
And this has been happening for a while now, with Gallagher explaining the thinking behind keeping Guardiola by his side at his gigs back in 2021.
Pep Guardiola was spotted behind Noel Gallagher at a charity concert on Thursday night
However, it was not the real Guardiola, but a cutout figure of the Man City boss instead
Gallagher (left) poses for a photo next to the Guardiola carving and he has revealed he has several carvings of the City manager
“I have a cutout in the studio to monitor the tactical analysis of the songs, I have one in the kitchen at home just to scare people when they come in,” Gallagher shared NME.
‘He’s actually an idol to me. And a great man.’
Eagle-eyed fans will also have noticed the cutout at Gallagher’s previous gigs when he was there when the former Oasis songwriter played at the Bingley Festival in Bradford last summer.
It may seem a bit of an odd choice to some for Gallagher to have a cutout of Guardiola, but the former has assured fans that the pair have indeed become close friends over the years and text each other on a weekly basis.
City finished 15 points behind champions Chelsea in Guardiola’s first season at the club and Gallagher previously revealed he texted Guardiola just before his second campaign at City got underway to ask if he expected an improvement.
He got an emphatic answer.
“He texts me back, “We’re winning the league. Believe me, we’re going to win, I’ve seen it in training”. And we won by 17 points,’ Gallagher said during an appearance on Life goals podcast.
Guardiola was just as confident in the 2020-21 season, despite his side’s slow start to the campaign.
Gallagher continued: ‘When we were 12th or something, Liverpool were so strong, we had the pandemic, we had been beaten by Tottenham and then drew with West Brom.
“Me and Pep always text on a Monday, he said, “What do you think?” I was like, “Well, we’ve got the FA Cup and stuff.” He says, “It’s only November. I’m a thousand percent sure that when it comes down to it, we’ll be there in the end.”
Gallagher and Guardiola have become close friends and text each other on a weekly basis
“I thought, ‘Good for you because nobody else is doing it’. And little by little we clawed it back and then we were so far ahead, it was unbelievable.’
City have a history of falling behind in title races under Guardiola and will need to do the same again this season as they are currently a point behind Arsenal and Liverpool.
They will host the Gunners in a huge clash at the Etihad later this month and the result of that game could go some way to deciding the title.
Guardiola wants Gallagher’s full support for the final run-in, just as the musician can count on the City boss to have his back for his concerts. In a way!