Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was a highly emotional figure in his side’s dramatic 2-2 draw against Arsenal in the Premier League.
He was quite proactive in the touchline, be it barking instructions to his players or violently kicking his own dugout seat after being incensed by the manner of Riccardo Calafiori’s goal.
He also came out swinging after the match, accusing the referee for causing his side to concede that goal and claiming his players won’t approach referees in future matches when called upon.
Despite all his antics during (and after) the match, something that Pep did before the Arsenal clash has annoyed a lot of fans.
Before the game, Guardiola took part in a pre-match interview with Sky Sports to explain his team selection and approach.
As the interviewer was asking him a question, the Spanish gaffer was seemingly playing with some saliva inside his mouth as he was unable to spit it out at that point of time.
The Spaniard probably did this because his mouth was dry and he needed to ‘freshen’ it up with the use of some saliva, as he couldn’t just start drinking water during an interview.
It seems like Guardiola’s mouth tends to dry up pretty fast, which could be because of the tensions on how a match will go like or perhaps because he doesn’t drink much water before such interviews.
Irrespective, this spitting habit of Guardiola has started to disgust many people who have been watched him constantly continue with it.
Spitting in general is frowned upon as it is marked as disrespectful and just bad etiquette in general, with footballers who often spit water to the ground during matches attracting quite a bit of criticism too.
But for the players defence, they often need to spit water to keep their mouth from going completely dry after covering long distances during games.
For a manager like Guardiola, who only walks around the touchline, that doesn’t exactly apply.
This could be a habit that he perhaps picked up from his own playing career and has just not been able to get rid off even so many years after retirement.
What makes Pep’s spitting habits even more disgusting for fans is how he prefers to keep the spit moving around in his mouth rather than gulp it. This might be his own sort of mouth exercise, but is actually quite awful to look at and triggering for a lot of people too.
Guardiola has been criticized for this spitting antics for many years now. In 2021, he was caught on video spitting something that resembled saliva or perhaps a piece of gum.
His antics were also criticized when the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were in full affect in England, as he was often seen spitting on the ground even when players or coaches were urged not to do so in the 2020-21 season.
The Telegraph criticized Pep’s spitting habits and how the mucus that comes out of his saliva could potentially cause spread of the virus. Now, spitting in a football ground isn’t exactly illegal – which is why Guardiola can never be reprimanded for it.
But considering how more and more fans are noticing his strange habits, it’s perhaps time Pep puts a lid on it. He can probably start drinking more water so that his mouth doesn’t go dry and cause him spit out saliva, because this unaesthetic habit is really not reflecting well on his reputation.