Watched the post game press conference in full, not that any of the media outlets have picked up on it but it wasn't that much shorter than most, and he actually said quite a bit.
Anyone else pick up on Pep's response to begin asked a 'football' question? He seemed astounded that an English journo wanted to ask him about football rather than the referee, a players personal habits or some juicy gossip. What a sad state of affairs it is. I, like many others, am genuinely interested in hearing Pep's ideas, his philosophy, his thinking. Instead we miss out because the press are far more interested in sound bytes and stirring up crap. You literally have to wait for the Spanish press to get their allotted two questions maximum, before you get an intelligent question and response.
I fear Pep will get disillusioned sooner rather than later with the role of a Premier League manager purely because the coaching aspect of it is nowadays not even secondary. He wants to coach players a certain philosophy, and gets joy from seeing the football flow, not from answering daft questions or being baited into fines. That said, I also think he won't walk away from us without bringing success.
And anyone who thinks that the Premier League don't see themselves as special and on another level, and actually damaging our own game and reputation because of it, should consider the performance of the England team at the Euros and World Cups. We expect special treatment because we do play by our own rules. The glaring example to me was always Peter Crouch when he pulled on an England jersey - his gangly, elbow led charges on the keeper were never put up with on the International scene and he more often than not failed to make any impact other than gifting free kicks to the opposition. Another example is the treatment the FA give to English internationals - Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, John Terry, Alan Shearer, all excused at various points for unidentified reasons from very questionable actions.
We are the English Premier League and we are special, just look at how much money we bring in and how many people watch our league, so stop speaking of a hidden agenda and go and place your bets with one of our official sponsors, there's a good supporter.