Pep Guardiola has fired a thinly veiled jab right at Liverpool, just before his Manchester City side take on the Reds at Wembley this weekend for the FA Community Shield.
The City boss has claimed that Liverpool’s Champions League victory isn’t as important as their Premier League triumph, and he done us the courtesy of reminding us the last time we won the title – 29 years ago.
In what seemed like a speech he rehearsed in the mirror just prior, Pep said City were better in the league. “Of course we would like to win the Champions League – so big respect to Liverpool,” he’s quoted as saying by the Express.
“But why is that a higher (achievement) than what we did in 11 months? I am pretty sure Liverpool would have liked to have won the Premier League, because it is 29 years since they last did.
“It’s incredibly good what they did in the Champions League, but we were better in the league. What we did has never been achieved before.
“It was awesome – and I think my colleagues and football players worldwide know how difficult it is. It was the first time in history that a team has won four titles in one season.
“Offer me the same again – even if it meant not winning the Champions League – and I would sign up for it right now.”
Guardiola reminds me of Raheem Sterling here – in an interview with Goal, the former Liverpool winger said that winning the Champions League is impressive (cheers, we know), but what they did was better and he’s annoyed at the media’s celebration of the Reds.
You see, what Pep and Sterling don’t fully understand is that we are Liverpool – we are one of the biggest, and most historic, football clubs of all time.
We’ve got fans in every corner of this world, and these fans are incredibly passionate – they haven’t been around for five minutes. The Reds are a big deal – as is ol’ big ears – and, while winning three major trophies last season was incredible, what we did was bigger.
Sorry, Pep.