Man City Fans Accuse Pep Guardiola of Cheating by Omitting Top Player
Man City fans have accused Pep Guardiola of deceiving them and not providing them with value for money when they purchase match tickets. Despite the fact that Guardiola has been very successful since joining the club in 2015, winning the Premier League four times and aiming for a Champions League win this season, his use of squad rotation has been a defining feature of his tenure. With so many talented players at his disposal, he aims to give them all significant playing time throughout the season, resulting in even top players such as Kevin De Bruyne being rotated in recent weeks.
Kevin De Bruyne, the Belgian footballer who is widely regarded as one of the best in the world, has not been included in the starting lineup for recent matches against Tottenham and Bournemouth. In the match against Crystal Palace, he only played for a brief 11 minutes. Jan Mulder, a journalist who attended the Palace game, was confused and surprised to learn that De Bruyne was not included in the starting lineup.
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“On Saturday 11 March, I was in London and got the hunch to go to Crystal Palace versus Manchester City at Selhurst Park in the morning,”
“I wanted to enjoy an hour and a half of Kevin De Bruyne, the virtuoso Belgian who reads the game like no other and is the draw in Manchester City’s file.
“I paid the peppery admission ticket, sat down in my seat and listened to the stadium speaker with the line-ups. De Bruyne was not participating.
“Manager Guardiola: ‘I know how important Kevin is. But at the same time, there are moments in a season when form goes up and down.
“Sometimes one player can suddenly be better than another. That is normal. Every match is different. I choose my players specifically according to a particular match.’
“These are the strike-through theories of a coach who gets a bit carried away and makes his job far more complicated than it needs to be. En passant, he cheats ticket buyers.
“De Bruyne himself shrugged and said: ‘It is as it is.’ And where is the customer? Nowhere. He has no right to speak. He pays the price demanded but gets no value for money. Money back!”
Despite recently being in and out of the team, De Bruyne insisted earlier this week that he is “feeling fine”.
“I think it’s alright. I think people have a different standard [of me] to a lot of players,” De Bruyne said.
“People expect me to score every game, assist every game. I think there’s been less assists but I don’t think I’ve been creating less. I feel fine.”
He added: “Maybe not the best I’ve ever played but it’s good. I guess I expect more from myself than you guys ever do. There’s no pressure. I play football because I like it, not because I have to.”
