Legendary musician and big Manchester City fan, Noel Gallagher, recently made the bold statement that Sir Alex Ferguson’s reputation may have been overstated, claiming that he “never invented anything”.
In contrast, while calling into Andy Goldstein’s show on talkSPORT, he said that Pep Guardiola has fundamentally “changed football” in the modern era and that, when it comes to who has had more impact on the beautiful game as we know it today, the Spaniard has been far more influential.
Big words, to say the least.
Now, while no one doubts that both managers haven’t just given both United and City fans memories for life but also put Manchester on the map when it comes to sport, arguing the case for who is/was better is a debate that has been raging years and it’s safe to say it split opinion on this occasion too.
‘Who’s better, Fergie or Pep?’ was the topic of discussion on the show prior to City’s 4-1 win over Arsenal.
As you can see, co-host Darren Bent posed the question of whether winning a treble for City would see the Catalan coach go above Sir Alex Ferguson in the discussion of the greatest manager of all time.
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The former Oasis immediately responded, “Alex Ferguson never invented anything. Pep Guardiola changed football”, to which Goldstein quickly corrected, “SIR Alex Ferguson”.
The talkSPORT host wasted no time in coming to Fergie’s defence, remarking: “I mean, he’s won the treble. He’s won 13 Premier League titles.” However, Gallagher countered by saying, “Well, he never did it in any other country, did he?”
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Nevertheless, the presenter continued with his argument by stating he thinks “Pep needs to prove himself” with this team on the European stage, noting that “the last time he won the Champions League was 2012… with Xavi, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta”, quipping, “even I could have won [it] with them.”
“I can’t speak for Pep Guardiola, but I’m pretty sure he couldn’t give a monkey’s what you think”. (Credit: talkSPORT)
While Goldstein continued to play devil’s advocate, Gallagher wasn’t willing to let it go either, asking what he has to prove and responding that “‘the greatest manager of all time’ jammed two Champions League finals, one on penalties and one in injury-time.”
Firing back further at the suggestion that Pep won his two Champions League with one of the best squads to ever grace the game in Barcelona and needs to win a European trophy at another club, the 55-year-old said he has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone.
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Asking one final question, the United fan said: “For argument’s sake… if he leaves Man City without winning the Champions League, you don’t think will be a failure?” Naturally, his suggestion was met with laughter from Gallagher, who simply replied, “that is mental. Failure? What are you talking about?”
Doubling down on his belief surrounding his impact, the Manc icon insisted Pep “has changed the way that football is played in this country and probably every country he has ever been in”, citing how “everyone [now] plays out from the back. Kids are doing it and they don’t even know what it means, but they do it because he does it. He is a tactical genius.”
Goldstein conceded that couldn’t argue against his tactical knowledge and style of play — though many online have clarified that Pep himself didn’t invent the likes of ‘tiki-taka’ but rather emulated his icon and predecessor Johan Cruff — but said that he still believes “you can’t take anything away from Sir Alex”.
But Gallagher was always going to get the last word in, quipping “Oh, I can. And I will.” Nothing but ‘Berting’.
Moreover, plenty on social media noted that Ferguson did, in fact, do it in other countries; he won three Scottish Premierships and four Scottish Cups with Aberdeen (the last manager to win the league not in charge of Celtic or Rangers) and even won a UEFA Super Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup with them.
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Pep still has three more league titles to win if he wants to level with Fergie’s 13 Premier Leagues, let alone his three others in Scotland and his long list of major honours. For many, it’ll take a few more trophies for Guardiola to be considered equal to or above Sir Alex, but what do you think?
Featured Image — Ian Wright/Man United/Man City(via Twitter)
Sport
UK supermarket ‘bans’ Manchester City players following Pep Guardiola press conference
Danny Jones
In a somewhat surprising but nevertheless amusing headline, Manchester City players have seemingly been banned from UK supermarket Iceland this Christmas.
No, as daft as it might sound, we’ve got a quote from the frozen food chain and everything.
With the Man City squad being given an added little reprieve when it comes to training this year, since their rivals over in the red half of the city are the only Premier League side playing on Boxing Day, they have an extra day off before getting back on the pitch this Saturday, 27 December.
Set to face Nottingham Forest on the road at the City Ground, it could be a potentially tricky away game, so they need every advantage possible to come away with the points and possibly claim that top spot before the end of the year, which includes fitness – and, more specifically in this case, weight.
“Come back three kilos heavier and you stay in Manchester!” 🍔👀
Pep Guardiola lays down the law on weight checks after Christmas, warning Man City players they will not travel for Nottingham Forest 💬🔵 pic.twitter.com/zES8ZRkWzG
Yes, following manager Pep Guardiola’s press conference after their 3-0 win over West Ham, in which he warned his players against packing on the pounds over Christmas, Iceland have confirmed that City stars won’t be allowed through the door.
We’re not sure how much frozen festive food is allowed on the diet sheet around the Etihad Campus to begin with, but still.
Sharing an official press release, an Iceland spokesperson said: “With Pep keeping such a close eye on his players’ Christmas calories, we thought it was only right to do our bit to help support him and get the best result for local fans.
“Our festive desserts are designed to be indulgent, over-the-top and impossible to resist […] They’re perfect for seasonal celebrations, but probably not ideal if you’ve got a post-Christmas weigh-in and an important away trip on the line.”
To be fair, we’ve cracked into that Bailey’s crème brûlée early before, and you don’t want to do anything other than lie down after it…
In case you missed Pep’s post-match presser this past weekend, the scrupulous Catalan coach acknowledged that while all of his players made weight on the Friday, he “will be there controlling how many kilos come up” this Christmas.
Urging them to show some restraint and avoid coming back “fatty”, he said they can obviously eat some of the holiday favourites around the dinner table, but that he still has to “make a selection [of] 27 against Nottingham Forest.”
Put simply, Guardiola said: “Imagine one player, and now he’s perfect, but he will arrive with three kilos more. He will [stay] in Manchester; he will not travel to Nottingham Forest, that’s for sure.”
You can watch his press conference in full down below.
Bruno Fernandes out for ‘at least a month’ following Aston Villa injury
Danny Jones
Less than ideal news for Manchester United fans as first-team star Bruno Fernandes is reportedly out for “at least a month.”
Reds can consider that akin to a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings.
Man United lost 2-1 to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday night despite a good performance, and certainly missed their creative spark in the middle of the park when Bruno Fernandes was forced off at the break.
Supporters in the away end and watching at home were no doubt looking through their fingers as they saw him pull up out of the blue and let the ball go out of play, especially given the fact that he never missed a game through injury.
To put things into context, Fernandes has played more matches than any top-level football player in Europe in the last three years (approximately 6,343 minutes – yes, really), so not only is it usually taken as read that he’ll start, but seeing their midfield talisman pull up mid-game was obviously a worry.
Fans immediately feared the worst as he had to stop moving and signal to the bench on multiple ocassions towards the end of the first half, and although it couldn’t certainly be worse, The Telegraph is now reporting that Fernandes has injured his “soft tissue” and faces at least a month on the sidelines.
The exact nature of the damage and the precise window he is expected to spend on the sidelines is yet to be fully confirmed by the club, but it seems likely that he’s latest to find his way onto the physio bench with a muscle problem.
Safe to say that it comes at a rather unfortunate time in the season, not only with three important players missing on AFCON duty, but with his supposed ‘like-for-like’ positional replacement, Kobbie Mainoo, seemingly having picked up an issue as well.
It still remains to be seen, however, just how serious the young Stockport-born star is injured for.
As the Portuguese captain, you can see the moment he suddenly pulled up and had to stop play – before ultimately seeing out the 45 – here:
Bruno should not have been on the pitch.
He’d done his hamstring.
Watch the video… Why is he still on the pitch if he can’t close down the player? pic.twitter.com/H8swgaQGSP
His compatriot Ruben Amorim was in no doubt that he would “lose some games”, but did play down that “nobody is going to die.”
The manager is still struggling to pick up points and still has the worst win percentage stat looming for the time being.
It doesn’t help that his now diminished squad have a tough game against Newcastle United coming up on Boxing Day; it’ll be interesting to see how the Red Devils head into 2026.
You can watch the highlights from Aston Villa vs Man United down below.
Danny Jones -
28th April 2023 
