Guardiola said after City's victory in the UCL match that players were tired and that he would like more people to attend Saturday's game.
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Pep Guardiola has told Kevin Parker, the general secretary of Manchester City’s supporters club, to “review” his comments made following Wednesday’s win over RB Leipzig, despite the manager’s refusal to apologise. Guardiola said after City’s 6-3 victory over Leipzig in the first Champions League group match that his players were tired and that he would like “more people” to attend Saturday’s visit by Southampton than the 38,062 who attended the Leipzig game at the Etihad Stadium, which seats just under 54,000. This caused Parker to tell City’s manager to just stick to what he did best, which is being a manager.
Guardiola responded to his comments on Friday ahead of the Premier League match week. “Did I say after the game against Leipzig that I was disappointed because the stadium was not full?” he said. “Interpretation is interpretation. I’m not going to apologise for what I said. I’m surprised about what happened with this man,” the Manchester City manager said. “It’s not the first time in my career I’ve said it; the same (when in charge) at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. You play a tough Champions League game, knowing that you have another in three days and that Southampton have had all week to prepare,” he added.
Guardiola reiterated that all he did was make an appeal to the City fans to support their club in the Premier League on Saturday. The number of fans that turned up did not matter as per the former Barcelona manager. “I made an approach (to the support) to do something together again on Saturday at 3pm. What I said is that we would love, and need, their support. Whether it’s 10,000 people, 50,000 or 40,000 – it doesn’t matter how many come – I invite them to come and enjoy a game,” Guardiola continued.
“After five seasons (here), if the people can’t understand my behaviour it is because they want to misunderstand exactly what I said. I’m not going to apologise for a second because I was honest,” he added. Guardiola would go on to say that he would not aplogise to Parker for his comments.
“I’d prefer to be with my people than without my people. But if they don’t come for any reason then it’s perfect. If you do, it will be a pleasure. So Mr Parker should review the comments made a day after. I will not apologise to him, absolutely not,” he said. “We are who we are. I know the history, I learned about the history. This club (when it was) in the lower division, what it means to follow the team. I don’t want to be like (Manchester) United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, (Real) Madrid – like all the big clubs. Don’t put words in my mouth, I don’t like it. If I have a problem with the fans I’ll make a step aside. It’s not a problem for me. I am one of them,” he added.
On Wednesday, Guardiola had appealed to City fans to come to the Etihad and support the club in their Premier League match against Southampton. “I would like more people to come next game on Saturday. We need the people next Saturday, please. Because we will be tired; I know the team from Ralph (Hasenhuttl) is quite similar (to Leipzig) in the way they play. They are so, so dangerous with good quality and it’s a really important game for us, so I invite all our people to come next Saturday 3pm to watch the game,” he had said.
