If you thought the Manchester City-Liverpool war of words was over, well, you were wrong. Man City defender Manuel Akanji has just thrown his hat into the ring. Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold kicked this all off, when he said his club’s trophies have more meaning than City’s, due to the added financial resources that the blue side of Manchester has.
City striker Erling Haaland responded in kind by saying Alexander-Arnold hasn’t won a treble, and thus doesn’t know how that feels.
Manuel Akanji on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s comments on #ManCity: “I don’t know why he said it. He didn’t even play. He can’t tell because he didn’t win it. That’s all I have to say. If you win three titles in one year, or five which we did, then he can speak…” [via @YahooSports]
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) March 11, 2024
Then the two sides, who have dominated English football for the past seven years or so, played to an epic score draw on Sunday at Anfield. The result will no doubt have major consequence on the league title race, but Alexander-Arnold missed out due to injury.
Akanji said to Yahoo:
“I don’t know why he [Trent] said it. He didn’t even play. He can’t tell because he didn’t win it. That’s all I have to say. If you win three titles in one year, or five [titles] which we did last year, then he can speak again.”
So now that makes three members of City who have hit back at TAA: Akanji, Haaland and manager Pep Guardiola. Obviously, the point of all trash talk is to try and get under the skin of your opponents. You want to live, rent free, inside their heads.
Akanji says the trolling remarks didn’t affect their match prep though.
“No,” he responded to a query of this sort.
“I don’t think so. Probably he [Trent] tried [to make it so] but it didn’t matter to us. I don’t think it affected us. In the end, we tried to go on the pitch and try to show our performance. I mean, it didn’t affect me.”
Till these two sides meet again, whenever that may be, the FA Cup final maybe?
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Twitter.