Leading up to the Manchester derby, one of the main talking points wasn’t the great football that could be on display, but what Pep Guardiola said in his pre-match conference concerning Mino Raiola and his alleged offering of Paul Pogba to the Manchester City manager during the January transfer window.
The Spaniard claimed the Dutch football agent had presented him with the opportunity to sign both the Manchester United midfielder and Henrikh Mkhitaryan a couple of months ago, and it all went a bit viral, mostly due to the fact the quotes were leaked ahead of the newspaper embargo.
Some believed Guardiola, others were skeptical, but one man in France certainly didn’t.
Rolland Courbis, who has previously managed the likes of Bordeaux, Marseille or Montpellier, was invited to comment on the Manchester City manager’s quotes on BFM Sport, and he was anything but convinced.
He said: “It’s fake. I don’t think the question asked comes from the journalist himself. It’s Guardiola who got him to ask it on purpose. A few hours after the loss to Liverpool and before the Manchester Derby, was it really the time to get asked if Mkhitaryan and Pogba were offered to City recently?
“That happens regularly, that a manager gets asked a question he wants to answer. I don’t find him a very good actor there. In fact, he deserves an award for worst actor.”
Perhaps Courbis is reading a little bit too much into things here. At least, that’s how it comes across.
However, if it was mind games Pep Guardiola was playing, it appeared to work early on, as Manchester City walked all over their rivals in the first half at the Etihad, going in at the break 2-0 up.
A certain Paul Pogba wasn’t having any of it, scoring two goals in just over 90 seconds in the second half to tie the game, before Chris Smalling, much maligned for his marking of Vincent Kompany in the first half, scored the winner for Manchester United a few minutes later.
