Pep’s Spurs (H) Post-Match Interview

[geoff hammond]

Neither can Pep have it both ways?

I booed them off at half-time because it was not up to our standards and hasn't been for weeks.

Booing the performance is an important distinction, demanding the team find the level it has set and trying to get a reaction.

We played shit at Southampton and for an hour at United, and neither were in front of our own fans.

Pep sprinkled a few home thruths into his rant, some more than valid, but it lies somewhere in between.

It's reverse psychology for dummies and another example that Pep is also not the same person and easily triggered, whether citing net spend trophies, publicly digging out an overweight player, or playing Cancelo on the right wing and then hooking him.

The crowd is disengaged at times, but he's out of order for a few things and he would know it if he didn't live in a complete footballing, lavish bubble.

Our brand of football can be beautiful, but lacks intensity, pace and power, so the majority of the crowd mirror our football, passive until it produces an outcome or reaction?

Other factors will always include the ridiculous cost of tickets. If the Club wants middle class fans and foreign tourists, you will get the crowd you deserve.

City don't want some twentysomething off the local estate spitting bile and spending nothing at the tills while they are there.

Pep doesn't need to tell me this team is way off it.

Guess what, you are paid £20m a year, you see them every day in training, you pick the team.

Sometimes it is simply on Pep, or the players.

I would never tell another fan how to support the team, whether it be at the game or in their own front room.

I'm as hungry as ever for success, never complacent about what we have won.

I'm now 48, however. I'm not the stupid 18 year kid who once shamelessly hissed gas noises at Spurs fans, simply because everyone else did it, sang Munich chants and stood outside the away end goading away supporters.

I'm a dad, I want to sit and enjoy the game with my son, I've lived a fan era which has long since passed. United, Liverpool, I am out of my seat a lot more.

Performances and rivalries will always dictate an atmosphere and level of hostility, same goes for a sense of injustice.

Otherwise we are just self-aware Scousers or Palace fans.

You say it wasn't uo to our standards but I think in recent years our support is not up to the standards of the football we have been blessed with

 

[Saddleworth2]

First of all,I didn't boo,too old for that shit,just shook my head as I stormed away from my seat like a wanker to go and have a puff on my vape at HT.

But this proves to me that Pep does not get us,never has and never will.

I have seen the outburst he has given,and I will say it now,as a supporter and match goer for over 40 years,he will never know what it is like to be a City fan,never,because if he did he would know that we have never taken anything for granted,the shit people my age have seen far outweighs the good times we have seen over the last 10 years or so.

Complacent ?, Comfortable ? ...fucking never has any City fan had that luxury in all the years I've been going,it's always been a case of edge of seat stuff,not knowing what the fuck will happen,all part of the buzz I guess.

He wants his team back ?, well stop being Ranieri number fucking 2 then,and playing players in wrong positions,he has the best squad,by far,in the league,but has an outburst like this after an incredible comeback like last night,weird as fuck that.

This rant could have been boiling away in his head for a while,fine,but don't take it out on the match going fans,oh sorry,the away fans are ok,they are the best.Yea ok

I'll be there Sunday to support the team,as per,not him,his team,he can go fuck himself after that outburst,I'm more fuming at it than he will ever be,just no need for the interviews he has given.

And before all the do gooders start chomping away about best manager we have ever had blah blah blah,respect works both ways

he doesn't get us. Of course he doesn't. How could anyone that hasn't lived our 'journey'. I thought he referenced the home crowd as an add on to the central message he wanted to give to his squad. It didn't make me angry as I can see it from his perspective whilst also know where you are coming from and respect that view.

Lets see if he gets the reaction he is looking for from all parties. That will determine if he was right or wrong to do what he did last night.

 

[meeesh]

Overall he is, you and the ones who criticise will be the same ones who complain about our next Manager when Pep has gone and we're scrapping for top 4. He's an elite Manager and we're very lucky to have him, you should appreciate that.

Doesn't mean it's ok for him to call us out,he won't be here forever,but we fucking will be

 

[pride in battle]

Spot on and his annual criticism of the fans is getting on my tits. Loads of us are frustrated by the turgid displays and tactical fuckery of late and yes that may translate to a lack of noise from the crowd but it is also up to Pep and the players to give us something to get excited about. Whilst I admit that complacency has crept into the fanbase that is only to be expected when teams are as successful as we are and expectation levels are raised to previously unseen levels. Add that to the fact that we are pricing a lot of the old school, and dare I say it more vocal, fans out of the game whilst welcoming a newer generation of "day trippers" who don't really have much connection to the club apart from their desire to be associated with success and maybe to watch attractive football and is it really a surprise that the atmosphere is flat?

The game has moved into the 21st century from what once a weekly form of escapism for the vocal working classes, to a corporate entertainment environment for those who can afford to be seen to be associated with the trappings of success as the increase in corporate hospitality will allude to. As much as it pains me to say Premier League football these days is more akin to a trip to the theatre, where there is also little crowd interaction, than the blood, guts and thunder of a 90 minute spectacle which may make or break your week. Rather than desire entertainment people now expect it and as football generates even more money in an attempt to sate the never ending thirst of its stakeholders we continue to mover further and further away from the sport we once knew

Bullshit, just a lot of excuses, we have thousands of season ticket holders who sit in silence, win lose or draw, its pathetic...

 

[Bluesince1979]

"I react to how the team plays."

Everyone does but against Arsenal we need the stadium rocking from the moment the teams arrive at the ground, it's not just the result it's what a positive result would do to Arsenals mentality for the rest of the season.

They have had serious flakey moments during the last few seasons and have imploded, let's make sure that happens again this season.

I was responding to sundays game v wolves . Of course itll be a big atmosphere v arsenal.

 

[Bluesince1979]

I'm glad Pep said what he said, it needed saying.
But there's also truth to what you say. The variety of side-to-side possession-based football that characterised the first half — and it was slooooooowwwww side-to-side, by God it was! — and has characterised so many other halves this season is not exactly designed to get any stadium rocking.
Might be wrong, but I think we had one actual on-target shot in the first half. And that was by our marvellous right back! Who is, so far, the single best thing about this season.
Just out of interest — I wasn't there, saw it on the telly, (can't get over at present, finances won't allow) — was the place rocking in the second half? Because if it wasn't, given what was going on, then I don't know what people want as a spectacle. I was doing my nut (and made a fool of myself in front of strangers…)

Yeah it was a good atmosphere in the 2nd. When they were kicking off after alvarez scored there was a big encouraging roar that made my balls tingle ;)

 

[Keeper!]

I was responding to sundays game v wolves . Of course itll be a big atmosphere v arsenal.

It will be even greater now

 

[meeesh]

he doesn't get us. Of course he doesn't. How could anyone that hasn't lived our 'journey'. I thought he referenced the home crowd as an add on to the central message he wanted to give to his squad. It didn't make me angry as I can see it from his perspective whilst also know where you are coming from and respect that view.

Lets see if he gets the reaction he is looking for from all parties. That will determine if he was right or wrong to do what he did last night.

Yea,and without trying to contradict myself,or take anything for granted,we have some pretty favourable games (the next 5) starting Sunday,I'm saying in my mind that maximum points from them all is a must,if we want to win the title,or at least push Arsenal hard for it.

If we don't win the league,then we don't,we can't or not expected to win it every season,but giving us the best opportunity to do so,it's got to be 5 wins from next 5 for me.

We will start again in August,and I will be there,whether he is by then is anyone's guess,his head might have exploded by then

 

[pride in battle]

Richards, what a prick, played right into the hands of the rag press and media, Peps had enough, he's at the end of his tether, even the bird in the studio could see what he was doing.
getting the fans and the players up for sunday!!
he might be an ex player but ffs he's thick as pig shit and comes out with fuck all worth listening to

What did he say ?

 

[Indaparkside]

I knew we shouldn’t have left Maine road