‘He is right’ — Pep Guardiola responds to Sam Allardyce claim and praises Neil Warnock - The Athletic 4/5/23

By Kate Burlaga

Pep Guardiola says he agrees with Sam Allardyce’s assertion that he is as good as the Manchester City manager.

Leeds have turned to 68-year-old Allardyce with just four Premier League games to go in a last-ditch attempt to stave off relegation.

Allardyce returned with a swagger on Wednesday, raising eyebrows as he claimed: “There’s nobody ahead of me in football terms — not Pep, not (Jurgen) Klopp, not (Mikel) Arteta”.

The new Leeds boss, whose record against Guardiola stands at four defeats from four games, will get another chance to show that on Saturday afternoon when his relegation-threatened side travel to treble-chasing City.

Asked about Allardyce’s comments after a 3-0 win over West Ham, Guardiola said: “He is right. I want to be honest. Now look what happened with, for example, Neil Warnock in Huddersfield.

“It looks like now the young managers are there with the tactics or whatever… so they are really good, they help us to be what we are.

“Look at the managers, Roy Hodgson for Crystal Palace, what they have done. They are really good, they have incredible experience, they know the game perfectly and if he feels that, it is because of this.

“He (Allardyce) has the charisma, he will put out the pressure to the players and he knows exactly what to do in this kind of situation in a relegation battle.

“It looks like this type of old managers… I’m honest, so what they have done for the club (is dismissed as) ‘they are old, whatever’.

“Now the people who are 35, 40, 45, we invent football or we create football? No, football is already created and these guys belong to that league and helped us to do it and that’s why.

“So, Neil Warnock, Huddersfield was in the last (spot) and now already out of the dangerous positions.

“I could not experience what Harry Redknapp has done in this country.

“There are many, many English managers that have done really, really well.

“You don’t have to be young to be a good manager. As much experience you have, you are good.”

Allardyce faces Newcastle United, West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur after City, with Leeds only out of the drop zone on goal difference.

“We start with an easy one on Saturday,” he quipped. “It can’t get any easier than Manchester City away, can it?”