- Pogba suggested that he hoped Man City suffer injury problems
- That would allow Man Utd to potentially make up ground in the title race
- Guardiola responds with brilliant reply with United man now set to miss derby
- READ MORE: Video: Mesut Ozil embraces Man Utd bench after Arsenal defeat, fans get excited
Man Utd midfielder Paul Pogba raised some eyebrows over the weekend, but Man City boss Pep Guardiola has produced a great response.
Speaking ahead of the weekend’s fixtures, and with the Manchester derby in mind this coming weekend, Pogba told BBC Sport, as seen in the video below, that he hoped City would suffer some bad luck with injuries like United have this season to allow them to make up ground in the title race.
Paul Pogba admits he’s wrong to say it… but he said it anyway.#MUFC #MCFC pic.twitter.com/Uf3dNC3c8n
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 2, 2017
While he even admitted before he said it that he probably shouldn’t, it was a pretty classless thing to say as it’s never nice to wish bad luck with injuries on another team and other professionals. Especially given Pogba himself has been sidelined this season and will know how frustrating it is to not play.
If anything, the French international should have been hoping that Man Utd stay fully fit and so do City in order to give us the best possible title race and to see the best vs the best next weekend.
Instead, he’ll now miss the big showdown at Old Trafford after being sent off in the win at Arsenal, and Guardiola produced a classy response in his post-match press conference on Sunday when asked for his opinion on Pogba’s comments.
“Hopefully no injuries. I would like that Paul could play against us, I like to face the team with the best players to see if we’re able to beat them. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want other players to get injured.”
To listen to his reply, skip to 4:20 in the video below: