Pep Guardiola has always been a charismatic figure in football. A manager that is known for his light press conferences and sarcastic statements, he is as cool and breezy off the pitch as intense and demanding on the touchline. Both things can be true.
For the first time in a long time, Manchester City have been made to sweat this season to defend their Premier League crown or even to just win it. Even during this pressure cooker of a period, Pep Guardiola has been maintaining his usual demeanour. Not a slightest hint of the tension getting to him. It shows in the interactions with the players too, be it his own or the opponents humbled by his.
Guardiola’s relationship with players has always been a feature of his management. Lionel Messi, Phil Foden, Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Robert Lewandowski have all been beneficiaries of this special bond.
Even opposition players have felt this courtesy by the serial winner. The likes of Joshua Kimmich and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been approached and appreciated by the tactician post game as a way of casually letting them know the difficulties they caused for his team in a light moment of laughs and banter.
So, when Manchester City rocked to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Tuesday evening, known for posing to be a bad omen for Guardiola’s men, The City manager was seen doing his usual bit of meet and greets after a nervy win.
One of the major talking points that emerged from the game was Pep having a bit of banter and flirting with Son Heung-min and Cristian Romero post match. While it would have been interesting to know what he toyed about with the two, we can certainly guess a few things anyways.
For starters, it wouldn’t be prudent of Guardiola for not thanking Son for fluffing his lines at 1-0 after Akanji’s dreadful mistake. It’s not exaggerating to say that Son’s miss and Ortega’s brilliant save set City on path for the league title.
Pep’s conversation with Romero was a far more hilarious one for the duo. While it may have been a case of Guardiola teasing Romero about his tenacity after he wiped out Ederson in pursuit of goal at one moment of the game, it was indeed a brilliant performance by Romero at the back. So could it have been an offer to join City next season? Guess we will find out.
Anyways the laughs and smiles might have come across as comical for City fans and the neutrals, it wasn’t well received by some of the fans online as they lost out to Aston Villa for the opportunity to play in the Champions League for a second season running.
While it was certainly a tough match to take for Tottenham and Arsenal fans, Pep was overjoyed at being in touching distance of another Premier League title. It’s unfortunate that Romero and Son were caught in the crosshairs of Guardiola’s banter at the final whistle. Afterall they were the two players from the Spurs team that gave Pep headaches during the game.
Son even made Pep lie down in panic!
However with all said and done, it was Guardiola and co. who had the last laugh and are on their way to an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title.
