Pep Guardiola is “stable.” His words. Or, word. Which few people are taking him at. Not when he’s confronting fans in the street, scratching his scalp in frustration and slumping on the visitors’ bench, hands in pockets, while his Manchester City side huff and puff and lose to Juventus.
Ruben Amorim is on a “long journey.” That is, the new Manchester United boss and the club that hired him, and its fans, are on one together. And together they “will suffer for a long period.” Like they did last weekend when they lost 3-2 at home to Nottingham Forest. At least he’s honest.
On Sunday (10:30 a.m., FuboTV), the stable Guardiola and the suffering Amorim will face each other for the first time in the Premier League when the former’s City hosts the latter’s United in a quite dysfunctional Manchester Derby. And what makes the build-up to it so intriguingly weird is that neither manager is the most dysfunctional thing about it.
DAVE THOMPSON / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim (right) discusses strategy with out-of-favour striker Marcus Rashford.
Take the guests, for starters.
The Red Devils are 13th in England’s top flight ahead of kickoff. Already this month they’ve lost to Arsenal and Forest, drawn the ire of an already frustrated fanbase by raising ticket prices (no discounts for children or pensioners, either) and sacked sporting director Dan Ashworth, who they’d pried from Newcastle in the summer after minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe called him “one of the best sporting directors in the world.”
Ratcliffe, whose INEOS group acquired a 25 per cent stake in the club — and full control over football operations — in February, has also cancelled the United staff’s Christmas party.
Apparently, nickel-and-diming the matchday stewards, lawn equipment operators and tea ladies is part and parcel of necessary cost-cutting measures at Old Trafford — measures that didn’t seem to include the more than £30 million spent to bring in Ashworth and Amorim and pay off ex-manager Erik ten Hag.
The new minority ownership then decided they’d recoup a few thousand pounds of the millions they’d blown by evicting the Busby family from their season seats. That would be the same Busby family whose patriarch, Sir Matt, managed the famous “Busby Babes” who endured the devastating Munich Air Disaster and won the 1967 European Cup.
It took a plea from none other than Sir Alex Ferguson to coax administration into changing its mind.
All the while, the team has been showing no sign of improving on the pitch. Amorim’s modern approach remains quite foreign, and one-time superstar striker Marcus Rashford has diminished to the point that United’s most pressing point of transfer business is to somehow get him out of the club.
Amorim’s new job is “more complicated” than he’d initially thought. Go figure. But at least the local rivals are in similar disarray.
Since the end of October, Manchester City have played 10 matches and have won only once. They’re still fourth-place in the Premier League — a far cry from United’s 13th — but they’re 22nd in the single-table Champions League, where they’ve been outscored 9-4 in their last three outings.
And Guardiola, football’s very stable genius, is at a loss.
The former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager had been letting his contract run down before he suddenly signed a two-year extension in November. Thing is, if performances continue on this trajectory it’s doubtful he’ll be at Etihad Stadium over the extent of it.
In a recent YouTube conversation with celebrity Spanish chef Dani Garcia, the 53-year-old admitted his energy was low — understandable, given the toll his non-stop work in Germany, Spain and now England has inevitably taken. It’s also got a bit dark and disturbing with Guardiola of late.
Following a 3-3 draw with Feyenoord, in which City threw away a 3-0 lead, he emerged for a post-match interview with marks on his head. He’d scratched it with his fingernail, he said, joking that the result had made him want to harm himself. It was a bad joke, and he walked back the remark in a subsequent social media post. He has since said he won’t rush into another managerial job when he eventually departs City.
The manner of that departure has become unexpectedly unclear.
Some of his stress is surely down to the club’s legal situation, having been charged with 80 breaches of financial regulations and a further 35 for failing to co-operate with investigations into those alleged breaches. A verdict will likely be returned early next year, and it could see City declared innocent or relegated and stripped of some titles — or anything in between.
That’s the big picture. The smaller, more immediate one has the reigning four-time champions conceding goals at an alarming rate, appearing slow and weak in the centre of the park in Ballon d’Or winner Rodri’s absence and struggling to create chances for striker Erling Haaland.
While it’s not yet at Rashford level, concern over Phil Foden’s form is increasing, and a dearth of summer signings has seen the squad go stale.
Typically, a customary derby win over United would serve to raise spirits, but beating United is no longer exceptional. It’s expected. Yet if they don’t, City could find itself in sixth spot or even lower when they visit Aston Villa next weekend.
Far from a dud involving a pair of local rivals experiencing disappointing seasons to date, Sunday’s matchup will be ever so more compelling due to ongoing instability at both City and United.
Get ready for the Dysfunctional Derby. It’s going to be completely unhinged.
@jerradpeters.bsky.social
