As we head towards kickoff of a potentially title clinching Manchester derby, a feud between two men heavily involved in the match, super agent Mino Raiola and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, escalates. City, if they beat United (a side that has recently often been referred to as Mino Raiola FC) today, can clinch the Premier League title.
Ahead of the weekend’s headliner fixture, a war of words is going on between Guardiola and Raiola, and it has drawn United midfielder Paul Pogba and former Red Devils winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan into its gravitational pull.
It all started when Raiola, in an interview with a Dutch magazine, called Guardiola a “cowardly dog” and zero as a person.
Raiola took issue with how Guardiola treated Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of his clients, when the two were at Barcelona together. (Ibrahimovic left United for L.A. Galaxy last month).
At his news conference on Friday, Guardiola hit back, and his response included claims that Raiola offered him Mkhitaryan and Pogba this past January transfer window.
“I don’t understand why I am such a so bad guy. I never speak with him so his influence on my opinion, so I don’t know maybe for Ibra explained many things about me,” the Catalan said at his press conference.
“But being a guy like two months ago [why did] he offer me Mkhitaryan and Pogba to play with us. Why did he offer [them]? He was interested in Mkhitaryan and Pogba playing with us. So I’m like a guy, so he has to protect his players and he has to know so he cannot bring the players a guy like me, like a dog.
“And comparing a dog is bad. It’s not good. He has to respect the dogs.”
While there is certainly a lot of debate over some of the things that Guardiola said there, we know he’s right when it comes to dogs. You do have to be nice to animals; no need to deride the canines and bring them into this.
The City boss then went on to explain his reaction to being offered Pogba: “I said ‘no.’ We don’t have the money enough to buy Pogba because he is so expensive.”
“I’m surprised (he offered him to me) because I am a dog. So that’s why. So like a dog, he comes to want his players to come here. So, no. No way.”
Raiola retaliated, telling the BBC: “I never spoke to Pep Guardiola. I would not speak to him about players, I would speak to Manchester City. They are a fantastic club with a fantastic manager.”
As for Pogba, he seems unaware of any pitches made by his agent towards city. He tweeted the following in reference:
Say what? ?? pic.twitter.com/FGCGFqAe64
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) April 6, 2018
Mkhitaryan has yet to publicly comment.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
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