“DO you give your players the greatest amount of credit today, not necessarily for the technical stuff but the character and determination they showed?” So asked Geoff Shreeves on Saturday as Sky Sports’ audience recovered from a tense, tight Manchester City victory over Tottenham.
The recipient of the question furrowed his brow, giving exactly the kind of look of a man who has just seen a stranger walk into his house, fart in his kitchen, then blame the stench on a beloved family dog.
“It’s twenty months doing that. Two seasons,” Pep Guardiola responded. “Are we discovering the true character of this team for this game? No way, my friend.
Pep Guardiola:
“I’m happy to be consistent. I love that, my team being there every three days. I love my team, I’m sorry.
One day you are out, for one inch. In knockout games it’s like that and after you’re a disaster and we’re judged because we’re out.”#MCFC pic.twitter.com/PlBa5NqTAZ
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) April 21, 2019
For weeks now this tired trope had been dredged up and given an airing; in press conferences and post-match interviews. Heart. Commitment. Resilience. Grit. Did his team have it? And now, was he proud that they did have it?
On each occasion the Catalan would highlight his team’s incredible achievements with Benitez-like precision, humbly omitting the part about them ripping up a league’s blueprint for an altogether funkier design. On each occasion too his reply would be accompanied along the way by a smile and chuckle unattached to good humour.
“But particularly the character they showed today after midweek,” Shreeves persisted, bluntly interrupting Guardiola’s flow. There was clear annoyance in the reporter’s voice and the subtext to that annoyance can easily be projected.
Look Pep, you know perfectly well that us Brits are obsessed with the rolling up of sleeves and the bulldog spirit. You know that we prize footballing fight over pretty much anything else, particularly fancy-pants passing that we still refer to as ‘tiki-taka’. We’d have Terry Butcher as Prime Minister if we could because he once played on for England with more claret on his shirt than was inside his body.
Guardiola’s Man City, 10 wins in last 10 Premier League games #Pep pic.twitter.com/7ydqysYsNB
— The Pep (@GuardiolaTweets) April 20, 2019
You also know that when you first arrived here England had its knuckle-dusters out, ready to give your haughty ideals a proper seeing to courtesy of good old-fashioned passhun and Glenn Whelan.
Now here you are, moments after seeing your side successfully dig in and scrap for their lives. So why don’t you just give me the quote I’m angling after so we can then say that England has converted you as much as you’ve changed us and we can both go home? Only Guardiola, unsurprisingly, didn’t play ball.
“Twenty four hours, twenty four months doing that. A hundred points (last season) and 86 right now. The team has been incredible all season so they don’t have to show me their character.”
It was two individuals discussing the same subject but in very different languages and revealed once again that even after all this time we still have the greatest coach in the modern era all wrong.
More than just local pride at stake on Wednesday…#MUNMCI #mancity pic.twitter.com/ubfXoLuloO
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 22, 2019
Because Guardiola believes in passion and heart and commitment. Of course he does. He cherishes character. It’s just that his interpretation of these traits contrasts so thoroughly with ours.
To him true grit lies in his players steadfastly adhering to a risky and adventurous philosophy no matter what the circumstances. Should they find themselves a goal down at an intimidating venue or require three points twice a week as the title race reaches a nail-biting conclusion the defenders still play out from the back while the full-backs stay high.
Spaces are left as an inescapable consequence of this, the commitment to play the right way, the beautiful way. A clearing of danger meanwhile, an easy way out is a sin.
For his players to unfailingly put their reputations on the line again and again by aspiring for such perfection is what equates to gutsy displays – a collective courage of conviction – and it’s a fortitude that far exceeds in nerve, scope and distinction the ability to grind out a result or wholeheartedly fly into challenges for ninety minutes.
Form…
– Liverpool: W W W W W W W W W W
– Man City: W W W W W W W W W W
Whatever happens, these two have treated us to an absolutely class title race!#CARLIV pic.twitter.com/Ltc3WV5rfS
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) April 21, 2019
Furthermore it’s a high-wire act executed from August to May then from August to May again; against Burton and Barcelona and Newport and Napoli. No matter what’s been at stake and no matter who the opposition are City have consistently dared to be daring.
This is why Guardiola is not deflecting when he responds to the charge that character is now needed to get them over the line by accentuating all of the astonishing things that his side have achieved in recent times. It’s because the suggestion that it’s only now that his player’s mettle is being tested is plainly absurd.
To us, with our British ways City are artisans; gilded and gifted creatives who could be roughed up if only you could get anywhere near them. To Pep, week after week after week, they are as passionate and ballsy as they come.
Did we discover the true character of Manchester City as they showed their minerals to eke past Spurs this weekend? No way, my friends.
