PEP GUARDIOLA made two ridiculous comments during the last week that illustrate everything that is wrong with Premier League elites.
Don’t get me wrong, Guardiola deserves our respect and adulation for what he has achieved at Manchester City, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. We all marvel at the exhibition of football his teams produce.
But I’d love to see him try managing an EFL club to see how he’d get on.
When he whinged about his precious City lambs forced to make a two-hour 123-mile coach journey home from Newcastle after Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie rather than fly, I wondered how he might cope if he was in charge of clubs like Exeter and Carlisle?
Neither team have the luxury of jetting to matches — like the majority of clubs outside the top flight.
When the Grecians, managed by Gary Caldwell, travel to deepest Cumbria — and vice versa — both teams face a SIXTEEN-HOUR journey … on a coach! That would have surely sent Pep into meltdown.
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In August for that Saturday game, Exeter broke up their epic trip by taking their team on a five-hour bus ride on Thursday to Mottram Hall in Cheshire where they stayed overnight.
They then did another three hours to Penrith on Friday to train with another overnight stay before playing the Cumbrians 3pm the next day.
But as soon as the players were showered and changed after the game, they were herded onto a coach to take them directly back to Devon. They arrived into Exeter at almost 2am.
At least their journey was a happy one after a 2-0 win.
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Only Bristol Rovers sit within a two-hour radius for the Grecians in League One.
Pep would also be sent into a spin if he swapped places with Paul Simpson at Carlisle. They are a geographical outpost in the third tier.
Championship side Plymouth, another team out on a limb, coach to most games.
They did fly to Hull on Friday ahead of their clash on Humberside — although had to take a six-hour bus ride home afterwards, getting back around midnight.
You didn’t hear Pilgrims boss Steven Schumacher whinging.
It’s good Guardiola’s chairman isn’t Forest Green’s Just Stop Oil campaigner Dale Vince. He’d never endorse flying.
And I dread to think how many times the likes of Erling Haaland would have to hang around doing keepie-uppies while waiting for them to charge their soon-to-be-unveiled electric bus!
But when Pep went on to later say he was “not going to waste one per cent of energy for the Carabao Cup” before complaining about how tired his first-team stars are, I had to laugh.
Pep backed up his reasoning by saying he couldn’t play stars such as Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias because they were “exhausted”.
City skipper Walker, who has played most, had clocked 11 matches for club and country this season ahead of being left out at Newcastle — only being substituted once, in the 89th-minute of the Premier League opener against Burnley.
Yet Exeter captain Will Aimson has not missed a single minute of THIRTEEN matches — while team-mate Alex Hartridge has also started 13 and played more minutes than the Man City star.
I decided to give Aimson a call because I was intrigued to know if he was “exhausted” having played more matches than Walker, who is now up to 12, over the same time period.
“No, I’m feeling great,” Aimson told me as he was excitedly preparing for game No13 against Northampton on Saturday.
And how is he finding riding on buses before and after games — especially the huge schlep for Carlisle?
He laughed: “I had a couple of seasons previously at Plymouth so am used to it!
“But we pass the time well — playing a few games, catching the late Premier League kick-offs if they’re on and building a rapport.”
There are countless lower league footballers like Aimson who play 90 minutes twice a week and must endure long coach journeys to and from games.
You also must remember clubs in the six divisions immediately below the Premier League play eight extra league games a season.
And it’s even more difficult when you get into non-league. Imagine being a semi-pro at Dover Athletic and having a job on a building site but having to endure a 10-hour round coach trip to Truro City in the National League South.
I wonder how “exhausted” some of those players are.
But, thankfully, not everyone in the golden corridors of the Premier League have such a blinkered view of competitions like the Carabao Cup.
Take West Ham’s Tomas Soucek for example.
I had a chat with the Czech midfielder after the Hammers survived a huge scare at League One club Lincoln to win 1-0 on Wednesday thanks to his winning goal.
And he told me: “I love these cup matches against lower league opponents because you can see how excited their players are to face a Premier League club.
“The atmosphere at EFL grounds like this are sometimes better than it is in the Premier League.
“It’s not a big stadium but the atmosphere is perfect. I love it because we all know where we came from. It’s great to play in this competition.”
The atmosphere at EFL grounds like Lincoln are sometimes better than it is in the Premier League.
Tomas Soucek, West Ham
Soucek has hit the nail on the head. These matches are huge for clubs like Lincoln.
The Carabao Cup is worth an estimated £50MILLION a season to the EFL — which is a lifeline to clubs in the three divisions below the Prem.
Yes, I know — it’s small change to Guardiola when you consider he spent £210m on four signings this summer.
Let’s hope £78m Josko Gvardiol didn’t get too exhausted playing 90 minutes at Newcastle and having to hop on a coach for that damn two-hour ride home.
Wednesday are a huge turn off
I MUST have witnessed the shortest fan attendance of the season at Hillsborough on Friday night.
A Sheffield Wednesday supporter, looking flustered and out of breath, arrived 10 minutes late for their game against Sunderland.
He took to his seat, then looked up at the scoreboard to see his team were already 2-0 down, promptly stood up again and walked out!
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What a sad indictment of how bad things have become for the Owls that fans cannot bear to watch another minute of the shower of rubbish being served up in front of them.
He would have been better off staying at home to watch Dragons’ Den. Who knows maybe some boffin could invent something new on the show — like a winning Sheffield Wednesday football team!
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
