Football

ARSENAL legend Emmanuel Petit urged Manchester United to take serious action against the fans who subjected Manchester City star Phil Foden to vile chants during the derby.Foden, 24, was targeted on Sunday by some United supporters during Man City’s goalless draw at Old Trafford with horrible songs about his mother Claire Rowlands.Manchester City star Phil Foden was subjected to vile chants by some Manchester United fansCredit: AlamyArsenal legend Emmanuel Petit backs Foden and urged Man Utd to take severe actionCredit: GettyPetit, 54, fully backs the England international and slammed the repulsive behaviour he had to endure by calling for severe repercussions for the guilty parties.So much so that the Arsenal legend insists Man Utd should show “zero tolerance” and suggested there should be lifetime bans for those targeting loved ones, including children.Petit told SunSport, on behalf of William Hill,: “Sometimes [they chant about] your mother, children [or about] your father who is dead. If I am Manchester United, I would be very hard on my own fans. I will say zero tolerance.”You know you did that. We got the images. We have the proof you’ve done that. You’re out of the game, you’re out of the stadium.Read More on Football”You don’t come back. We don’t need you. We don’t want you back in the stadium. You are not the fans we want.”So that, for me, is very simple with everything there is – there is cameras everywhere. We know who do that. So it’s very simple to take action from that. “Petit knows all about this awful vitriol some players go through as he also received despicable chants about his family, while some yobs targeted him with racist songs back in his playing days.The France legend would often get his revenge on the pitch by focusing on his game and delivering a stunning performance that shut the hecklers down, but even that was sometimes not enough.Most read in FootballPetit added: “Back in the day when I was playing, I received some bad comments as well. Sometimes they used to call me Gypsy, and they said things about my family. There, I received some racist comments as well. “I tried to avoid them all the time. I tried to protect myself not to get emotional about this. And I tried as much as possible. ‘They should be ashamed’ – Pep Guardiola slams Man Utd fans for sick chants aimed at City ace Phil Foden’s mum”The best answer you can give is on the pitch – just win the game, shut your mouth and leave the game.”But when you go back in the dressing room, even if you do that, you have the feeling, ‘What the f***? I mean, I kept control. I did everything I should do on the pitch, I won the game… I just gave the best answer for those f****** p*****’. “But in the meantime, what’s next? Are they going to be in trouble? No.”Petit called on the powers that be to finally get “ruthless” and start handing out severe punishments to such “stupid people”.The former midfielder supports campaigns by Fifa and Uefa dedicated to ending racism within the game, but he insists examples need to be made to eradicate this sort of “disease”.Petit said: “I’m talking about what happened in Manchester United, but it’s everywhere, the same. Fifa and Uefa, those guys, have to be ruthless. They have to take decisions and they have to make examples out of it. “I think in France is the same. I think sometimes those who are responsible of the game don’t take those problems seriously. “It’s funny to see the message that Uefa or Fifa try to send every time there is a fight against racism. You want to do it? Do it properly.”I mean clubs, they are protecting their fans all the time. They have to be ruthless. So what can I say more honestly? It’s a pity, it’s a disease.”This is something that we’ve been fighting against in football for years, and years, and years. I think the sanctions, the fines, should be more important, because you can identify people easily with cameras in a stadium. So something has to be done. Petit admitted he was abused by fans during his careerCredit: GettyRefs need to take action”Those stupid people, they feel free to do what they want to do in a ground. “What is the point of spending money, buying a ticket to watch the game, and then you go there and just make some very bad comments about family, about loved ones, the skin of one’s colour, or religion? I don’t know. I don’t get it, honestly.”So for me, it’s a disease in football, it’s a disease on social networks. And those people who are responsible of the game or social networks, I think they have to step up and take their responsibility.”Petit believes everything starts with the referee and urged officials to stop the match and order the teams back into their dressing rooms even if only one player is subjected to such vile chants.He said: “Well, I think the referee has to take the decision as well. They should stop the game. No more of that, send a strong message every time you hear bad comments, racist comments about family, stop the game. That’s it. Send the players back into the dressing room. “Because I think it’s very easy for so many people to hide behind their fingers. So I think referees have to to step up to make a strong decision, even if it’s not popular. “But as well, the players. I’ve seen the last few years some players and teams leaving the pitch after racist comments about their team-mates. And this is one solution. Read More on The Sun”But in the meantime, it’s not the priority of the players to do that. They’ve been paid to play. “Those people in charge of the laws, they have to step up and take the responsibility, and it starts with the referee.” More

WHEN I was a young pro at Watford, my manager Gianfranco Zola, told me: “You’re a footballer, you are paid not to have feelings.”Those words were true, but never easy to accept, and they came back to me when I heard the sick abuse being chanted at Phil Foden by hundreds, if not thousands, of Manchester United followers during Sunday’s derby at Old Trafford. Phil Foden was targeted by sections of Old Trafford on SundayCredit: AlamyFans referenced Foden’s mum in vile chantsCredit: GettyDeeney was left shocked, but not surprised, at the vile abuse Foden receivedCredit: APTheir grotesque chants targeted Foden’s Mum – whose only ‘crime’ has been to raise an exceptional footballer.Those who sang about the Manchester City star’s mother are senseless morons and they are cowards too. How many of them would have made those comments to Foden’s face if they met him in the street? But it’s safety in numbers, the anonymity of the crowd. It says a lot about the sickness in our society that a large number of grown men can go to a football match and get their kicks from aiming horrible chants at a young man’s mum.  READ MORE IN FOOTBALLFoden was one of only three Mancunians to play in Sunday’s match. His family lives in the area, so they are going to be affected even more by such behaviour because they cannot escape it. We talk a lot about wanting local heroes. We talk about wanting ‘proper derbies’. We talk about wanting big English clubs to be in touch with their roots in a globalised, cosmopolitan Premier League.And then Manchester produces a player as good as Foden – a working-class, council-estate lad with a supreme gift who is the reigning Footballer of the Year – and Mancunians treat him like that. I suffered plenty of abuse from the terraces during my playing days – some of it racist, some of it aimed at my family, even my children. Most read in FootballTroy Deeney played under Gianfranco Zola at WatfordCredit: AlamyIt is not something you ever really get used to. Depending on the individual, it will make you angry or sad or vengeful – but it always stings. Zola told me I was ‘paid not to have feelings’ when my daughter was born, not long after I had come out of jail.‘They should be ashamed’ – Pep Guardiola slams Man Utd fans for sick chants aimed at City ace Phil Foden’s mumI was receiving a lot of stick from supporters and in the media. I wanted to do an interview to tell my side of the story, a basic human instinct to set the record straight, but he told me that it would only add fuel to the fire. Maybe he was right but I could never quite get my head around how my choice of career meant that I was apparently fair game for abuse.No amount of money can make those sorts of chants palatableTroy DeeneyAnd please don’t try to tell me that because Foden earns more than 200 grand, he should just deal with it. No amount of money can make those sorts of chants palatable. It seems that nothing is off-limits in modern football – because nothing is off-limits in modern society. Social media, with its lack of filters, allows this sort of abuse to flourish and become normalised. Read More on The SunI don’t know what can be done to knock sense into the heads of the sad people who think it is acceptable to call a footballer’s mother a ‘s**g’. Foden, like every professional footballer, is paid not to have feelings. But he will be feeling this all the same. Foden started Sunday’s Manchester derbyCredit: Getty More

MANCHESTER CITY boss Pep Guardiola has sensationally claimed that Matheus Nunes is “not clever enough” to play in midfield.Nunes joined City in a £47million transfer from Wolves in the summer of 2023 and was initially considered by many as a natural replacement for Ilkay Gundogan, who had just left as a free agent.Pep Guardiola has claimed that Matheus Nunes is ‘not clever enough’ to play in midfieldCredit: GettyPep Guardiola instead believes he is better suited to the full-back positionCredit: PAHowever, the midfielder has struggled to impress over the last 19 months.And Guardiola has even suggested that he is not good enough to play in his favoured position.Instead, the Spaniard believes that Nunes is best suited to playing as a right-back.Following City’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday, Guardiola said: “He can become a good right-back for the physicality.READ MORE IN FOOTBALL”I think he’s not a player to play in the middle because he’s not clever enough, in composure.”He has incredible skills and he’s learning a lot; full-backs always have a big mistake when a cross to the far-post where you are, always they’re sleeping. “And he defended really well two or three crosses from Bruno Fernandes, [Patrick] Dorgu. He has physicality to do it, he can play that position and he’s helped a lot.”When we started the season and I tell we’re going to play Matheus at right-back, Nico [O’Reilly] left-back, you’d tell me, ‘What are you talking about?’Most read in FootballCASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS”But the season is what it is. Akanji is coming back, and we have two young central defenders.”But the last two or three games, the back four today again was excellent.”Pep Guardiola in iconic reaction to controversial Man Utd fans’ chantNunes has been playing as a full-back since Kyle Walker left to join AC Milan on loan in January.A utility player, the Portugal international has been rotating with Rico Lewis in right-back the position.This season, Nunes has also played at left-back, left midfield, left wing and in the centre of midfield. More