The stress of managing Manchester City lately was etched all over Pep Guardiola‘s face following their midweek capitulation against Feyenoord.
After all, this is a new experience for him. He is a man of great detail, a serial winner, he will be questioning himself, searching for the answers. We talk about stress in management. I kicked bottles over, punched walls, I smashed a television in the dressing room at Dunfermline. I acted like a child, lost control of all emotion and what did the players learn from it? Nothing.
This is not about what Pep does, it is about his players and what they do to regain belief.
When I was playing at Liverpool in 1981, we lost 3-1 to Manchester City at Anfield on Boxing Day. It left us in 12th position in the league, nine points behind the leaders. The headlines were all about ‘End of the Empire’, ‘the Empire is crumbling’.
That hurt because at Liverpool you were constantly reminded of the great players who had gone before and the dynasty they had created.
A couple of days prior to our next game, an FA Cup tie at Swansea, Joe Fagan, Bob Paisley’s assistant at the time, took us outside at Melwood, Liverpool’s training ground. I can remember the exact spot, there should be a bloody commemorative stone there, just on the edge of the A team pitch.
Pep Guardiola entered an unprecedented moment in his career having lost five matches in a row
Though a lot of blame has fallen on Guardiola, it should also fall upon his Man City players
And Joe said: ‘Right you buggers, that’s it. We’ve said everything we can. Now it’s over to you. I suggest you take yourselves for a night out and sort it among your bloody selves.’
Like all footballers then, we didn’t need much encouragement to go for a drink – but it gave us the opportunity to lay it all out on the table about what we thought we were doing wrong, to air our grievances, and have a proper talk with each other.
We knew we had to find an extra yard, that extra belief, that extra aggression. It was also about being courageous and wanting to be on the ball when the game wasn’t going our way and not hiding.
We regrouped and we went on a terrific run, losing just twice in 25 games to go on and win the league title. Bob would later say it was the hardest one to win.
For Manchester City now, it’s about regaining that belief, that confidence. It should be there in spades given their recent history of winning trophies, and Pep will be looking for the leaders in the group to have the conversations we Liverpool players had and drag them through this mire. It’s solely down to them.
Pep has been so successful with this group that it’s not about starting to do things differently, or talking to them in a different way. It isn’t broken. These players now need to stand up and be counted.
We’ve heard pointed remarks about the age of the City squad affecting the intensity, and many are 29, even 30. That’s not the issue here. Diets are better, fitness is better, pitches are better, travel is better. Everything in the modern game is geared towards longevity. When I played, I had my best season at 31, my last at Liverpool. It’s nothing to do with age.
I must have had it said to me by other players 10 times or more since I stopped playing: ‘When we played against you, it seemed you were a team of men.’
For Manchester City now, it’s about regaining that belief to get their season back on track
The reigning Premier League champions will travel to title rivals Liverpool on Sunday afternoon
And looking back the nucleus of our teams were mid to late 20s. People who had been through the mill with vast experience.
For many of these City players, this is a new experience: not looking forward to going into work every day, not having the same spring in your step, the usual camaraderie or banter. There will be some pointing fingers of blame. But now is not the time for that, now is the time to be looking in the mirror and questioning themselves, not the guy sitting next to them in the dressing room.
That’s what Pep needs to see now. He wants the real men to lead from the front because he has now said all he can say. That’s what champions do.
Salah’s contract stand-off
When Mohamed Salah says he has yet to ‘receive an offer’ from Liverpool, it would be naive to consider it anything other than a play on words.
Liverpool and his representatives have been speaking about a new contract and talks are ongoing. I can’t believe anyone thinks otherwise. Both Liverpool and the player need to know where they are at, as, after all, he could sign a pre-contract with a foreign side in little more than a month.
Liverpool in the last decade have been as good as anyone in their recruitment, which I always say is the most important thing at any football club to get right. They are constantly looking to improve on what they’ve got and that will take some doing on the excellent group they have right now.
But nothing has changed at Liverpool. When I returned there as manager, I had a conversation with Tom Saunders, who had been right-hand man to Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish.
Mohamed Salah recently claimed that he has not received a new contract offer from Liverpool
But Liverpool and his representatives have been speaking about a new contract in recent weeks
Looking through the small office window with a metal grating on the outside, as my players ran past at Melwood, Tom relayed a story. Bob, when he was manager, would often say when looking through that very same window ‘I’m not happy with him’, then… ‘I think we can do better in that position’, then… ‘I think he’s tailing off…’ and these were comments about a team that was winning a league title or European Cup every year.
So they were never completely happy with the group they had and that was a large part of Liverpool’s success over the decades.
Yet Salah, at 32, is in great nick. He is better now than the day he walked through the doors at Anfield just over seven years ago. He has proven his worth in the pantheon of Liverpool greats.
Some Liverpool watchers would now put him in their greatest ever XI, and that’s no light statement when you consider the greats that have gone before. He’s cute the way he rides challenges, rarely gets injured and is at the peak of his powers. There are many ways of making an agreement work and it is one they have to find.
When Arne Slot took over at Liverpool, I said in this column that the biggest job ahead of him was not recruiting new players but getting Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to sign new contracts. That is how it is proving.
If it’s a football decision, where do you go after Liverpool? Possibly Real Madrid but nowhere else.
If I was a betting man, I’d say Salah and Van Dijk will still be Liverpool players come the summer but maybe Alexander-Arnold, with his obvious relationship with Jude Bellingham and Real Madrid’s right back Dani Carvajal being 33 in January and recovering from a serious knee injury, will be the one who departs.
If that comes to fruition then Liverpool, to quote a politician or two, have an oven-ready young full back in Conor Bradley. As Kylian Mbappe can now testify, he is full of energy, full of quality and destined to be a star.
Conor Bradley is full of energy, full of quality and destined to be a star – as Kylian Mbappe can now testify
Keane’s confrontation
Have I ever faced abuse from a football fan while doing TV punditry? Of course I have. That’s why I was a bit surprised to see Roy Keane reacting the way he did to comments made by a fan at Ipswich Town last week.
We live in a society where it is deemed acceptable to shout abuse at people in a football stadium. That’s how it always has been. I’ve been in football over 50 years and if anything it’s now even more acceptable, they put it down as ‘banter’.
At times there could be alcohol involved and, coupled with a safe distance, some of these characters assume a bravery where they believe they can shout what they like.
Personally, I’ve always viewed it as ‘that’s the price on the ticket’. It happened to me most weeks and I’ve always taken the ‘sticks and stones’ stance. It never changes.
Roy Keane had a heated exchange with an Ipswich fan last weekend while working for Sky
Roy gives an honest opinion. If you don’t give that you won’t get asked back the following week, that’s the nature of the business. He has his own style that often gets headlines and sometimes that means you can’t always be nice regarding the people you are talking about.
That can stick with supporters and they remember it the next time you are back at the stadium.
Roy is long enough in the tooth to know all that. He’s been a player, a manager, and now a pundit. I can’t speak for him for why he reacted the way he did.
But what I can tell you is that I like Roy and I enjoy working with him. He’s not what you’d first think as he’s very humorous, not short of a one-liner, and mischievous. That doesn’t excuse people shouting abuse but I doubt it will ever change.
