The fall-out from Sunday’s 2-2 draw between Liverpool and Manchester City has taken a surprise twist after it emerged Pep Guardiola deliberately tripped match referee Paul Tierney in the Anfield car park after the game.
City boss Guardiola was furious in the second half when stand-in Reds full-back James Milner escaped what seemed like a certain second yellow card for a cynical trip on Bernardo Silva, and Paddy Power News has since learned that the Catalonian tactician sought revenge afterwards as Tierney made his way back to his car.
“It was carnage,” an onlooker said. “Tierney walked past the City team coach and Pep quite blatantly stuck a leg out, tripped him up then looked down at him shouting, ‘Isn’t that a fu**ing yellow then?’
“What made it worse was the ref was munching on some pizza and when he went down it went all over his best all-white suit.”
Another witness, who also wishes to remain anonymous, added: “There were kids present in that car-park. What sort of example does this set when one of our top managers starts acting like a 10-year-old?
“Children everywhere will now think it is acceptable to start legging-up headteachers whenever they feel like it.”Guardiola is understood to have been seething when he got back to the dressing room after his side twice came from behind to earn a well-deserved point, and was ready for a showdown with the man he thought had robbed them of a great chance to take all three points from their main title rival.
“He went straight to the ref’s office, but Tierney had locked himself inside,” another onlooker told us. “Pep tried twice to break the door down before being restrained by stewards.
“He was in a bad mood and who could blame him – when he got back to the dressing-room he also discovered that someone had gobbed on his new cardi.”
An Anfield source told us that Tierney was advised to get showered as quickly as possible and leave the area, but the match official is understood to have stated that there was ‘no way’ he was doing that as the ‘post-match buffet is one of the best in the Premier League’.
Whilst City have asked Liverpool to look into the spitting incident, Guardiola could be in serious hot water after upending Tierney, ruining his best clobber in the process. PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials) chief Mike Riley told us that they were looking into the events following Sunday’s game, before explaining that they would ‘definitely be charging City for their employee’s dry cleaning bill at least’.
City have distanced themselves from other accusations, including that a member of their staff pi**ed in Tierney’s petrol tank resulting in the official’s car breaking down just 50 yards outside Anfield then having to wait two hours for the AA to come to his rescue.
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