Pep’s Spurs (H) Post-Match Interview

[Stockton Heath Blue]

We need calling out. It’s not just about tonight. We as fans have got gradually worse as the season’s gone on.

We had three identical games - two before the World Cup and one after it.

Late in all three games it was 1-1 against Fulham, Brentford and Everton.

The crowd were well up for it against Fulham, we were right behind them all game and right to the end when we got the 98th minute winner with just ten men and the whole team did a lap of honour to thank the fans.

But against Brentford and Everton the atmosphere was as flat as a witch’s tit, we ended up losing the Brentford game and drawing the Everton game. We were chasing winners in both of those games, just like Fulham, but we were shit in the stands and didn’t drive the team on to win when they needed it. Drive the team on to win those two and we’d be sitting top of the league tonight.

Tonight if we’d carried on all game like we did in the stands in the first half we’d have lost that game. But when the team came out for the second half we were right up for it, just like Fulham, and we went on to win and the team did a lap of honour to thank the fans.

I think Pep’s right to call us out because we as fans have drifted this season. Just like we’re right to call the team out and him out, because they’ve also drifted.

Tonight is the turning point! For both the fans, the team and him… feels different now.

Roll on Sunday!

When your pricing model lends itself to tourists, and there were plenty in EL3 last night, you are going to get flat atmospheres. Last night was an ideal opportunity to price the match competitively and appeal to the lapsed/local/young family fans. Over £100 for a parent & child is bang out of order.
It irritates me when multi-millionaire managers/players/owners call out what is a traditionally working class fan base.
We have an aging fanbase and the club need to address enticing the younger fans to the games, who massively add to any atmosphere.
maybe the North Stand expansion will address some of the issues. Who knows?

 

[Gray]

Pep doesn't have a problem with the away fans, during the Sky post match interview he called them the best. But the home fans? mmm. Those away fans will be dotted around the Etihad and the noise and passion they generate (away) is lost in a cauldron of meh. It's a vicious circle of expectation from the fans, many of whom have gorged themselves to excess on our successes and the players, who have done it all, won it all (CL aside) and been involved in many exciting comebacks like that last night. We need more fire, everywhere.

This has been discussed ad infinitum on Bluemoon. Wedging away fans in between hard core home fans just does not work.

Come on MCFC get of your arses and sort it out.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

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 ;)

Most agreeable.
I prefer it to be an individual person, preferably in my case of the opposite sex, eliciting that reaction from me.

 

[paulchapo]

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

Sadly you're right. There's some near me who hardly stir even when we score and that's in the south stand lower.

 

[shemnel]

Don't care mate,never seen a manager of City,and there's been a few in my lifetime call us out like that,maybe it's his way of playing mind games,but I'm not understanding this at all,especially after a win.

Last Saturday he should have erupted,not last night

yeah but he's ignited something in you hasn't he.

 

[Saddleworth2]

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

I hope Pep is still here for sure. Wether he is or not very much depends on the reaction he gets from now.

Pep reminds me of a boss I had. Probably the most brilliant mind and most driven individual I have ever met. I learned more under him than every other boss I worked for put together. Bloody hell it was a hard slog though. Every day, every minute of every day your standards had to be 100% and even when they were he pushed even harder. I was relieved when he left, missed him like fuck after that and was distraught when he died at 64 of a heart attack.

As I said, Pep reminds me of that guy and the players that have been with him for years will feel it.

We will never have better though.

 

[stan bowles]

Can't disagree with anything Pep said. We need to raise our game several levels on the pitch if we want to compete for the biggest trophies. The atmosphere at home games is shite - we have become a silent, expectant fan base. Players and fans have been operating in a comfort zone. Better enjoy it and get behind this team and manager - might not be as good again.

 

[pride in battle]

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.

Never have I booed a city team and I never will, supporters are there to support the team.
Don't you think some of the players deserve a bit of slack after our unparalleled success ?
Don't worry Pep will weed the slackers out, we support the team.
Pep is right, I'm in South stand level one, I went to the loo at half time and the amount of people laughing and joking was unreal, I couldn't believe it, we had just conceded 2 goals in 2 minutes and the league title a distant memory...as a home fanbase we need a kick up the arse, thousands sat in silence, pathetic...

 

[inchy14]

I think Pep also said when Rico got fouled 4 times there was no passion from his team mates.

That I’ll agree with. Where was a Kompany or Fernandinho at that point. Only Jack seemed fired up. The older heads should have been protecting him big style at that point.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

I hope Pep is still here for sure. Wether he is or not very much depends on the reaction he gets from now.

Pep reminds me of a boss I had. Probably the most brilliant mind and most driven individual I have ever met. I learned more under him than every other boss I worked for put together. Bloody hell it was a hard slog though. Every day, every minute of every day your standards had to be 100% and even when they were he pushed even harder. I was relieved when he left, missed him like fuck after that and was distraught when he died at 64 of a heart attack.

As I said, Pep reminds me of that guy and the players that have been with him for years will feel it.

We will never have better though.

I've had 2 managers like that. Showed me a different approach to life tbh. Same playbook too, came in, sorted out the wheat and chaff, then drove us as hard as possible (whilst being seen to be fair). He wasnt that bothererd if you failed it was the trying that counted. And accepting criticism.