Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore has written a bizarrely self-confident response to Pep Guardiola seemingly not knowing who he is.
Speaking to the press ahead of Manchester City's 8pm kick-off with Watford tonight, Guardiola - quite deliberately, we'd suggest - cut a perplexed figure when quizzed about Collymore's criticism of his managerial career at City to date, much to the enjoyment of those present.
Collymore wrote in his Monday column, following City's heavy defeat to Leicester:
If Guardiola thinks he’s going to turn up and outplay everybody in the Premier League and that teams like Watford, Leicester, Bournemouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace are going to let his Manchester City side have the ball for 90 per cent of the time and pass pretty patterns around them so they can get a result, then he is absolutely deluded.
In fact, he is beyond deluded. And if he thinks he doesn’t need to teach tackling or one-on-one combat in training then he’ll be going back to Spain with his tail between his legs.
Guardiola's response, which you can watch here, was as follows:
Stan Collymore?
Seemingly put out by Guardiola's nonchalant response, Collymore has fired back at the all-conquering former Barcelona and Bayern manager, suggesting he brush up on his Stan Collymore knowledge by, eh, contacting Stuart Pearce, or watching Sky Sports Classics.
Writing in the Mirror last night, Collymore said:
I had to have a belly laugh at the posts from blogs and websites getting giddy that Pep Guardiola, when asked about my MirrorFootball column, looked puzzled and asked: "Stan Collymore?”
They’ve had a field day, gleefully saying “he doesn’t know who you are etc” which, bearing in mind most of these journalists wouldn’t be recognised in their own front room, makes it even funnier.
If Pep doesn’t know who I am, that’s absolutely fine, all he needs to do is watch Sky Sports, there’s usually the 4-3 game (Liverpool vs Newcastle, 1996) on, or used in an advert.
Maybe he could give the former manager of his current club, Stuart Pearce, a call and ask him about who Nottingham Forest’s greatest 11 is, managed by a true great of the game, rather than one spoon fed lots of cash to get success.
Or ask Robbie Fowler, Liverpool legend, and someone I’m sure Pep knows the name of, who his best strike partner was amongst Owen, Rush, Viduka, Shearer, Cole et al.
We're almost certain Guardiola already knows who Alan Shearer is, to be fair, but perhaps the Spaniard could indeed do with binge-watching Premier League Years from the '90s over the festive period, like the rest of us.
You can check out Collymore's full riposte on the Mirror's website.
