Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur pulled out of the European Super League, just 48 hours after the Premier League’s big six announced their involvement on Sunday.
In the end, the whole thing saw a backlash, from leading players such as Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne, James Milner and Jordan Henderson, with Pep Guardiola the manager who was most vocal against it all.
At the start of this week, reports in England suggested Chelsea and Manchester City were given the option to get on board in order to avoid the risk of being left behind.
While the news of Chelsea pulling out of the ESL broke before their kick-off against Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday evening, Manchester City were the first club to confirm their withdrawal from the competition. Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United then followed, with the latter also announcing the resignation of Ed Woodward.
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez has now said one of the top six Premier League clubs weren’t convinced of the ESL from the beginning.
“There was someone among the six English teams who did not have much interest in the Super League and that began to infect others. It is a team that was never convinced,” Pérez told Cadena Ser’s program El Larguero on Wednesday.
The Los Blancos’ supremo refused to name the English club, who went on to ‘infect’ the remaining five.
The chances of it being Manchester United or Liverpool look slim since their American owners were reportedly keen on going ahead with involvement in the Super League.
Pérez, however, did mention a Manchester club, likely referring to City.
“The owners of Manchester began to make a manipulated campaign that we were going to finish with the leagues and that the merits were not rewarded,” he added.
It’s also claimed the Real Madrid chief was ‘hurt’ by the attitude shown by the likes of United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs, after these sides withdrew from the ESL, despite having signed a “binding contract”.
