Usually the Catalan media are very positive towards Pep Guardiola.
He’s their football genius, spreading the gospel of the beautiful game around Europe.
Manchester City have a big Catalan influence running through the club and Pep is very much a part of that. The whole thing is cherished.
However, over the past week a couple of very critical Guardiola columns have popped up, from each of Catalonia’s two sport newspapers.
First up, Mundo Deportivo had a column which presented the manager as hypocritical, questioned his ethics, and explained how he’s not fussed about harming Barcelona’s interests.
Thursday’s edition of Sport sounds just as annoyed, but on a different topic.
Toni Frieros isn’t happy.
Guardiola recently appeared at a University of Liverpool event, and when asked if Barcelona should play a big role in Catalan independence struggles, he said: “Of course they must play an important role!”
Whilst Frieros agrees that as private citizens Guardiola and Joan Laporte (former Barca president who has also been speaking recently) are free to say what they want about anything, it’s different when they say things from their ‘watchtowers’, knowing the media will echo it and give the suggestion that someone or something must do this or that.
The journalist says of Guardiola’s words: ‘Really, Pep, FC Barcelona, as a club that represents more than 140,000 members of all social, economic, religious and political backgrounds, has to be protagonist in the attainment of the independence of Catalonia?
‘FC Barcelona is, without a doubt, the most international Catalan institution that exists and corresponds, by principles, ethics and values, to defend its language, its culture and to be on the side of democracy. In its day, the club has already joined the platform for the right to decide, precisely because it believes that one of the basic pillars of a 
democratic and free society is to be able to vote for what most citizens want.
‘And the club has also shown itself against the imprisonment of the politicians of the process. The club cannot and should not do anything else. It is not up to FC Barcelona to tell its social mass what to vote or what direction to take and less in a question as complex as this which concerns us and which arouses so many sensitivities.’
There’s probably good points on both sides, but it’s clear there’s some Catalan irritation with Pep Guardiola at the moment.
