Pep Guardiola: ‘My Thought Is That We Have Already Been Condemned’
Pep Guardiola #PepGuardiola
Pep Guardiola faced journalists for the Aston Villa pre-match press conference, focusing mainly on the Premier League allegations.
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As the first question came in regarding the allegations, Pep Guardiola was keen to point out his thoughts regarding what has happened in Turkey and Syria.
“My first words about the Club are thoughts about the people in Turkey and Syria for these terrible moments,” Guardiola responded.
But this was only the beginning when the exchanges between the Manchester City Manager and the press that had gathered at the City Football Academy.
“My first thought is that we have already been condemned. What happened is this same that happened with Uefa.
“We had already accusations, and now we are charged. The club proved they were innocent [of Uefa charges].
“You know what side I am.” continued Guardiola.
Guardiola was then probed on whether the achievements made during the period the allegations fall under would have been tainted.
“We are lucky we live in a marvellous country where everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
“We didn’t have this opportunity; we are already sentenced.
“What is going to happen? I don’t know. Personally, I am happy we are here as, like Uefa, we have the chance to defend [ourselves],” Guardiola said.
“We have a good lawyer, not that Uefa had bad lawyers. And I think the Premier League, supported by 19 teams, are going to take good lawyers too to defend their position.”
The potential punishment brought an answer that was a throwback to 2001/2002, which shows Guardiola’s attention to detail regarding what he calls his ‘Club.’
“If we are guilty, we will go to the lower divisions like before; we will call Paul Dickov and Mike Summerbee.”
The attention finally got to this weekend’s upcoming fixture against Aston Villa, with some talking about the Tottenham Hotspur performance.
“We lost to Spurs. The rest was quite good; FA Cup [against Arsenal] and Premier League [against Wolves]. The game v Spurs was not bad. We need more consistency. We are going to try and start on Sunday.
“Try to beat Aston Villa,” Guardiola said as the focus shifted.
“Try to play good against a team with many weapons and a manager [Unia Emery] with a lot of experience in important games.
“The players will be focused on our game, that’s for sure.”
This was a brief break in the questioning regarding the FFP allegations where Guardiola wasn’t holding back in what he thought could come back to haunt other clubs.
“They open a precedent right now. What happened to us, be careful. What happened to us? There are a lot of clubs that could be accused in the future.”
Guardiola was keen to point out his commitment after talking to Ferran Soriano and Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
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