Pep Guardiola has taken a dig at Ex Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard following calls for Manchester City to have their trophies scraped.
Guardiola will not stop lambasting rival clubs who the Spaniard believes are jealous of his side’s achievements in the past few years.
The Spaniard claims that the clubs in the English Premier League are motivated by envy to punish the Citizens for their financial misconduct.
The former manager of Barcelona and Bayern Munich has claimed that the other 19 Premier League clubs are responsible for the more than 100 sanctions they were hit with last week for violating the league’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
The Citizens are now under investigation, which might result in harsh penalties such as point deductions, transfer bans, title revocations, or even elimination from the tournament altogether.
Guardiola’s first appearance in front of the media since Monday’s stunning disclosures saw the 52-year-old come out swinging, bringing up Gerrard’s infamous moment that contributed to City’s Premier League title success in 2013–14.
In late April of 2014, with Liverpool just a few games away from winning their first Premier League title, Demba Ba opened the scoring for Chelsea at Anfield thanks to a slip by Gerrard.
After suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea, they traveled to Crystal Palace and threw away a 3-1 lead to end up in a 3-3 draw. This allowed Manchester City to capitalize and claimed the league title.
The City manager continued by saying that the club owns its good and bad moments,’ regardless of the sentence.
He said, “Those moments are ours, no matter the sentence. Anfield slip by Steven Gerrard in 2014 and a goal by Sergio Aguero in 2012. Do you blame us for that?”
“The Premier League has the final say, but I know how hard we worked and what we accomplished. Things that happened in 2009 and 2010 will continue to be the same in 2011. These experiences spanned many years of our lives together.”
Along with his stunning defense of City, in which he accused the other 19 Premier League teams of conspiring in their downfall, said that they had already been ‘condemned,’ and pledged his future to the club, saying he was now more committed than ever. Guardiola insisted that the trophies belong to City forever.
What’s next for Manchester City?
A final decision on the club could take many years to get. Meanwhile, on Sunday, February 15th, 2023, Manchester City will play Mikel Arteta’s team for the second time since the allegations were made against them.
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