Pep Guardiola lets journalist know: ‘My life is better than yours’

After Manchester City defeated Brentford, Pep Guardiola was ebullient, telling a journalist, “My life is better than yours,” and reminded critics of Erling Haaland to “shut your mouth.”

At the Etihad, the champions defeated the Bees with a goal from Haaland that was the lone goal of the match, moving them to within one point of league leaders Liverpool.

Before his goal against Brentford, the Norwegian sensation had only scored twice in his previous seven games. Guardiola warned that anyone who criticizes his striker should anticipate a response.

An old friend of mine told me when I was younger—before I became a journalist—that “top scorers strikers score a lot of goals, don’t criticize, he will shut your mouth.” said Guardiola.

The City manager brought up the fact that during Haaland’s most recent slump, he was not only healing from a severe injury but also a family catastrophe.

He will arrive sooner or later. The Spaniard remarked, “It is not easy for a human being to be out for two months and to have lost his grandmother.”

“This is the player I would pick if I could only choose one to get a chance.”

After Guardiola’s mention of journalism in his previous answer, he was asked why he never wanted to be a journalist and said: ‘I am a manager. My life is better than yours. But nothing personal with you.’

Fair enough.

There was one concern for Guardiola on Tuesday as Kevin De Bruyne remained on the bench throughout the game, struggling with a slight hamstring problem.

‘Today we could not use Kevin because he had niggles in his hamstring and I didn’t want to take risk,’ said the manager.

‘He’s OK. It’s just a precaution but he didn’t feel comfortable, and so after five months off we didn’t take any risk.’