Pep Guardiola feels some of Manchester City’s detractors want to see the club wiped “from the face of the Earth”.
City are facing the threat of a points deduction or even expulsion from the Premier League after being charged with 115 breaches of the competition’s regulations following an investigation into their financial affairs.
A long-awaited hearing into the matter began earlier this week and a verdict is expected to be delivered next year.
City manager Guardiola has claimed previously that some of the club’s rivals want to see them found guilty and he appears in no doubt they would expect punishment to be severe.
Guardiola brought up the matter unprompted at a press conference to preview Sunday’s clash with Arsenal while ostensibly delivering an answer about the tendency of people to overly criticise isolated bad performances.
He said: “During a season, you can say, ‘Oh, it was a bad season’.
“But for performances some people say, ‘Oh, it’s a disgrace, it is a disaster, it’s unacceptable’. No, during 90 minutes it’s one bad afternoon when they were better.
“But I would say – I’m sorry, I want to defend my club, especially in these modern days when everyone is expecting us not to be relegated, to be disappeared off the face of the Earth, the world – that we have better afternoons than the opponents. That’s why we win a lot.”
Guardiola had moved onto that subject after highlighting the importance of playing a pragmatic game.
City under Guardiola are renowned for their control of possession and fluid style, based on playing out from the back.
Pragmatism is not something they are usually associated with but Guardiola feels people should not overlook another aspect of play they are not only good at, but the best.
He said: “We are so pragmatic as a team – look at the results.
“People think if you have a build-up, a lot of passes and maybe no long balls or transition that we are not pragmatic.
“(People believe) being pragmatic is only related to results and not in beautiful football. I don’t believe in that.
“Pragmatic? We are the best team in the world at being pragmatic. Look the numbers. We won a lot.
“I believe in being pragmatic and we believe in the way we play. We are unbelievably pragmatic, the best I would say. I’m sorry, that is the truth.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here