Pep to leave at the end of the season

[Gordyola]

Has anyone actually been named as the source of the news / leak?

It’s been an open secret amongst the Manchester press pack for months but, they have not published but have been preparing copy for awhile
Oliver Holt is distant to Manchester and either he decides to punish or was told to by his editor and so for whatever reason went for it, maybe to destabilise City’s title push.
Did the final leak or confirmation come from a sponsor directly, or did he hear City were briefing them? Alternatively he just may have used that as an excuse We may never know!

 

[Bellamy's Caddy]

A sponsor, apparently

"You're not going to lose you're job. You're not going to lose your job. You know..."

 

[johnny crossan]

'....Bollocks. It was a calculated, maximum damage campaign, timed for that purpose alone. Not for their professiona integrity, not in the interest of getting news out there, not even for reputational or financial gain. But to disrupt and interfere. With a club and manager trying so hard not to be interfered with. That has given them 10 years of solid gold for their jobs btw.
And THEN... even then.. they didn't stop to respect the game, but had to prod him on his reaction to it, the players' reaction. And obviously, continue after the game. And afterwards? Total silence! Sure, now they are happy to wait for the club to announce it. They knew what they were doing. And when, and why they chose to do it.

This and only this needs to said. Well spoken @Coatigan.

 

[blueste41]

Oxford Road, shirley :)

Street! Fuck I'm going senile, I didn't even notice and my wife was there for 20 years.

 

[Coatigan]

Ok so tell me an area of life where stories aren't leaked before an official announcement?
All the examples you have come up with were long before the actual departure, it's reasonable that in those instances nobody else actually knew. Pep and City (wisely IMO) have decided they weren't going to make an early announcement.
I'm not defending the press, but there job is to report news and make money from it there not going to hold back from that regardless of who it affects. If you think that in the cases you came up with they would have held back your extremely naive.

But they DID hold it back. For months. Everyone claims they knew.

They reported on an expectation. Not on the news. So even the 'it's their job to' arguement falls on its arse.

C'mon mate. You are astute enough to know Pep is leaving before lots of us here from how he says things (kudos on that btw, fair play you got it right, that's not sarcasm), but you can't see what they did with this and why? You are obviously not that naive!

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

It’s been an open secret amongst the Manchester press pack for months but, they have not published but have been preparing copy for awhile
Oliver Holt is distant to Manchester and either he decides to punish or was told to by his editor and so for whatever reason went for it, maybe to destabilise City’s title push.
Did the final leak or confirmation come from a sponsor directly, or did he hear City were briefing them? Alternatively he just may have used that as an excuse We may never know!

Thanks. I asked because pep leaving stories (like haaland and aguero leaving stories) are an annual event - a bit like the rags signing superstars stories tend to pop up when they want to sell season tickets.
I was wondering why this time the story was given credibility so quickly and reported so widely as fact ahead of any official news from the club.

 

[pepguardiola'smoustache]

Everyone claims they knew.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

Nor sure what You mean by that, so not sure anybody said that. I said hes top football coach, but its a difference to be a generational coach like Pep etc

Pep has given rave reviews to some proper dross over the years, so I wouldn't take his praise at face value.

But I'm only taking the piss. I agree Arteta is a quality manager.

 

[Micky Blue]

Say it quietly but he's a bit of a prick, I know him from the BBC Oxford street days.
Andy Buckley was much nicer.

I agree mate.

When I was a kid I was at junior blues.
For the raffle the prize was an Ali bernabia shirt. It was signed and match worn.

We found the winning ticket on the floor. It wasn’t claimed so me and my mate tried to find it and we did.
The **** refused to give it to us as we told him we found it.
He said he would try to find the winner (don’t know how when we had the fucking ticket)

My guess is he had it for himself.
We were about 12.
I’ll never forget how upset I was.

 

[levets]

Brought a tear. It's been a week, I've slept really badly since Monday, and keep welling up. I'm an FOc girl, I know about emotion and this is painful. I feel like I did when Colin The King passed, heavy and sad.

Pep has given us a wonderful decade, I'm grateful. I'll miss him like one of my own. I just want the closure now, wait fir next seasons fixtures ( so I can rant how they stitch us up with lousy long journeys away over the festive season), how we get tough fixtures around the time of the CL ko rounds, and just forget VArsanal were gifted that title. I need a break from footy, but I know I'll keep looking on BM every day for my fix, I certainly won't be watching anything on Sly Sports or buying any papers.

Let's give Bernie and Jonny BOY and his signing cagoule a right royal send off.

Nothing lasts forever, but by god it was good when we had it.

So many memories of Pep. One of my earliest when I knew we would win the PL was Kevs incredible goal at Chelsea, September 2017. That team was something else and we are so fortunate to have witnessed a decade of pure Pep. X

That Kev screamer at Chelsea was when I knew Pep was going to deliver the title after all the nonsense in the media regarding his first season. I was in Singapore on holiday, at my friends house watching that game, and woke the whole neighbourhood up I’m sure when Kev scored. I’m also an FOC and before the takeover, wondered if I’d ever see another trophy before I ‘pegged out’. Never did I imagine what Pep would deliver. He’s undoubtedly the best ever and I feel fortunate to have been alive to witness it; as so many of my peers, my younger brother being one, never got to complete the journey.

 

[IrishBloodEnglishHeart]

Say it quietly but he's a bit of a prick, I know him from the BBC Oxford street days.
Andy Buckley was much nicer.

I love Cheeseman - I was at Junior Blues when I was a kid and he randomly came over to me asking if I wanted a signed Ali B shirt - slipped me the winning ticket that some kids had just given him and told me to say Id just found it. Class

 

[Coatigan]

If you didn't react to the news then fine, but I was absolutely devastated and so were all the City fans I know. We were hoping he'd do another year yet. The players might not have been as extreme as my reaction, but I'm sure they will have been talking about it, talking about Maresca and ultimately not fully focussing on the game.

I was devastated about the news. Eventhough, I was prepared for it. I resolutely refused to believe it in the months of smoke and noise, but I was open to it, and on some level thought if it is so be it.

But more than the news itself, I was gutted at the sheer disrespect shown to the club, the fans, and most of all Pep himself. In the way and when it came out. That was the real blow to the stomach for me.

Pep leaving, I can take. But the relentless media hounding, despite his clear stance, clear refusal to let it become the story, clear desire to be left alone.. not to mention his dedication to these players and us as a fanbase. All that absolutely shat on that night in one selfish calculated low blow. That's what really got me! That was the real sad bit in all this.

And it got the fans at the ground, and it 100% got Pep. Probably got the players, but even if it didn't, being able to tell that it got Pep and the fans, then would have got to them too.

I'll never forget that night.

The amount of articles we have read over the years by journalists, about 'the dark heart' of football.

THAT was the dark heart of football.. It's fucking Them.

 

[halfcenturyup]

It is in advance, in fact it's as soon as it's known. If it was after they would know anyway?
It's the same as when a company knows it will lose money and they have to announce a profit warning.

:) It's nothing like that. Anyway, if there is a specific clause about the notification of key personnel changes, the important thing to the sponsor imho is how it affects sponsorship amounts going forward once the change is announced, not getting some sort of pre-announcement.

 

[Coatigan]

I and many others didn't go along with it, lots of us were posting before Monday that Pep was going because he could barely keep a straight face when he said he was staying (go back and check).
It's been said enough that the players knew as long ago as Feb he was going for me to believe that to.
I expect we will all officially who knew what when in the coming days so just park it until then.

You are still missing the point.

Workd of difference you knowing, even the players knowing within a collective bubble.. and it going public to everyone, not just City fans but all others. Despite best effortes to prevent that.

It's not the 'news' which may not have beem news to them that is the distraction and deflation. It is the news becoming news that is.

 

[JCB001]

So is he going ? Confirmed or not ?
Serious question .Not scrolling through the last 100 pages

 

[Cheeky Txiki]

Saw this on twatter, looks like his daughter doesn't mind #onemoreyearguardiola

 

[Coatigan]

I think that's just a lazy excuse for a shit performance and it's not like it's the first time all season we have played so poorly.

It is impossible for things to happen in such isolation, therefore it is impossible for that to be the case.

It affected everyone involved. Enough to take that little bit of the edge off, enough to swing the margins against a good team. It affected Pep, the players, and as such the game, the result, and killed off any remote chance of winning the league.

It affected me. It affected lots of blues. Not the so much the what, but the how.

 

[Coatigan]

we are one of the biggest clubs in the world.
every company and his wife would love to sponsor us.
we get to pick and choose the lucky ones.
they don't get to say things like...
you must tell us in advance if the manager is leaving.

it is bullshit that this was where the story came from.

Jacg Gaughan actually says as much in that chat. They all knew, but Holt was the first to decide to just go for it. The sponsor thing was just a shield.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

There was an interesting line Pep used in his post Bournemouth assessment, which was on the whole season and not just the game.

'We had to deal with things we could not control'. On the face of it, probably injuries. But he said it with that Pep look he gives people, the read between the lines one.

Think that was a dig at the PL match rescheduling and having to play Bournemouth on the Tuesday.

 

[noseve]

we are one of the biggest clubs in the world.
every company and his wife would love to sponsor us.
we get to pick and choose the lucky ones.
they don't get to say things like...
you must tell us in advance if the manager is leaving.

it is bullshit that this was where the story came from.

I hadn't actually heard that rumour- I was just wondering whether it entered the conversation?

Sponsors often have more clout than you think - didn't it eventually come out that Nike had forced Brazil to play Ronaldo in the '98 World Cup Final?