Pep Guardiola and Manchester City suffered a shock defeat in their latest Premier League outing at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers. The post-match spotlight was on the Spanish manager due to his pre-match comments about one of the forwards of the Wolves.
In a pre-match conference, Pep Guardiola spoke about the quality of the Wolves side. He commented on the attacking prowess by saying: “We always struggle in Wolves and when you see the quality individually that they have, especially up front with Neto, with Cunha, and with uh- the Korean guy.”
“Especially up front with Neto, with Cunha, and with uh- the Korean guy.”
– Pep Guardiola 😭pic.twitter.com/jrv7saLnTT— Football Report (@FootballReprt) September 29, 2023
The Korean Guy was Hwang Hee-chan, who scored Wolves’ winner against Manchester City. The winner from “The Korean Guy” made Guardiola an easy target for online trolls for his comments.
Comments like “The Korean guy just dunked on Pep’s bald head,” “Pep just got served,” “Now Pep Guardiola will always remember his name,” and “This is the perfect way to respond,” were some hard jabs on Guardiola for his comments.
“THE KOREAN GUY” pic.twitter.com/nd6WrdyEbc
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 30, 2023
The Wolves official account on X also mocked the boss of Erling Haaland when they uploaded the image of Hwang Hee-chan for the goal with the caption, “THE KOREAN GUY,” the post reached an audience of more than 10 million.
Manchester City still remains top of the Premier League after the loss, however, their lead at the top is cut to a single point. Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal won their matches and now sit at 17 points in second place.
Manchester City will now face Arsenal in their next Premier League match away from home without the main midfielders Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne, who are still out with injuries.
Pep Guardiola suggests an all-out war with governing bodies due to the high number of matches
Guardiola was in the headlines again recently for complaining about the number of games in the current playing calendar. The Spanish manager suggested players should take a lesson for the Spanish Women’s team to go on strike against the governing bodies.
Guardiola was quoted by 90min: “There is only one solution to change something, maybe if all the players decide for themselves to say, ‘Stop’, then you have to change something. And then FIFA, UEFA will maybe react a little bit.”
🎙️ Pep Guardiola suggest players go on strike to protest the fixture congestion:
“There is only one solution to change something, maybe if all the players decide for themselves to say, ‘Stop’, then you have to change something. And then FIFA, UEFA will maybe react a little bit.… pic.twitter.com/1r7TLAHXTz
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) September 30, 2023
Manchester City’s boss acknowledged that the show must go on but pointed out that the show cannot go on if the players decide to strike against the calendar. He further elaborated by using Spain’s women’s team as an example.
He continued: “Look at Spain with the women’s team, the players decided to change something and they changed it. They changed something because the players decided that they had something inside to protect the players, and the future of the teams for new generations.”
The Women’s team in Spain, including the World Cup-winning players recently went on strike on the issue of a disagreement in the minimum salary for players and the wage gap. Pep Guardiola wants their male counterparts to use this as motivation to make a stance against the increased number of games in the playing calendar.
Many experts, managers, and players have complained regarding this issue in the last few years, but governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA have yet to take any action on it. On the contrary, FIFA and UEFA have both introduced new tournaments such FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Conference League to increase the burden on the players.