Tony Cascarino has claimed that both Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola would ‘leave’ Liverpool and Manchester City, respectively, if they were no longer wanted, as he told talkSPORT.
Both Liverpool and Man City have endured some serious battles over the years, but Guardiola’s recent comments about his own fans have caused a bit of a stir.
Whilst Liverpool supporters are used to packing out Anfield on a weekly basis, especially for European nights, it’s not the case for those at the Etihad.
The Premier League champions didn’t sell out their ground for their opening Champions League tie against RB Leipzig, with Guardiola urging ‘more people’ to come for the Southampton match, as he told BT Sport.
That caused a bit of a stir, including a Man City supporters group weighing in and criticising their manager, with Guardiola responding by saying:
“I love this club, I am part of this club. When people are not happy with me I will leave, that is for sure,” as he told Sky Sports.
Whilst some managers continue to take the flak, and stick with it, former Republic of Ireland striker, Cascarino, thinks Klopp and Guardiola are the types of managers that don’t take such nonsense and would leave if they weren’t wanted.
“It’s been taken and dis-jointed, some of the words he said,” said Cascarino. “I took the end of ‘if he wasn’t wanted there’. He is a special type of manager.
“If he wasn’t wanted by the fans then he would leave, Pep. He wouldn’t suffer like a lot of managers who get stick. He wouldn’t do that. He would just walk out of the club.
“Jurgen Klopp would probably do that at Liverpool. If Klopp came to a stage where he wasn’t wanted, like he did at Dortmund where he had an indifferent season, he felt that he wasn’t the right man for the job, so he moved.
“Pep would do exactly that.”
It will be interesting to see how long Klopp and Guardiola fair in their jobs because the supporters of those clubs would want them to stay as long as possible.
In the modern game, it’s not the norm for managers to stay at a single post for a long period, but both Guardiola and Klopp are building up those years.
For Klopp, he will no doubt feel he wants to add more Premier League titles and another European Cup to the Anfield cabinet.
Whilst Guardiola is searching for that Champions League trophy, which is so far eluding those at Man City.
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