The manager of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has revealed that Phil Foden and Jack Grealish were benched in the match against Newcastle United due to an unacceptable behavior.
On Sunday, December 19, when Manchester City visited Newcastle United to play a league game, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish were the stand-out players that were dropped from the starting lineup which defeated Leeds United 7-0 on December 14.
Recall that during the Premier League game against Leeds, Phil Foden scored in the 8th minute and Jack Grealish who joined the club last summer for £100 million, scored in the 13th minute.
After the 7-0 win, coach Pep Guardiola decided to give all the players a break to unwind. Phil Foden and Jack Grealish reportedly took the opportunity to party into the night.
When they returned to training the next day, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish were said to be in a bad condition to train due to their outing the previous night.
Hence, despite how brilliant they were in the game against Leeds, the misconduct forced them to the substitute bench in the game against Newcastle United.
In their absence, Manchester City went on to beat Newcastle 4-0 at St. James’ Park courtesy of goals from Dias, Cancelo, Mahrez, and Sterling.
When coach Pep Guardiola released the team’s lineup ahead of the game and Phil Foden and Jack Grealish’s names were missing, it was assumed that they were dropped due to the rotation policy of the coach.
But during an interview after the game, coach Guardiola confirmed that they were absent in the team’s starting eleven as a result of ill behavior.
“Not rotation, no,’ the coach said. ‘I decided this team because they deserved to play — these guys and not the other ones.
“At Christmas time I pay a lot of attention to behavior on and off the pitch. And when (behaviour) off the pitch is not proper, they are not going to play.
“So we have to be focused all the time because of distractions at Christmas time and everything that happens — you still have to be focused.”
This is not the first time Foden who is a product of Manchester City academy misbehaved. Recall that in 2020 the 21-year-old football star had to be sent out of the England National team hotel for bringing in ladies in conjunction with his country’s teammate Mason Greenwood of Manchester United.
Due to the misbehavior, he had to miss a couple of international games but was later considered for the European Championship that took place between June 12 and July 12, 2021.
As it stands, it is not certain that coach Guardiola would use Phil Foden and Jack Grealish when they face Leicester City on boxing day, December 26, 2021. But the magnitude of the match might tempt the coach to feature them.
