Sports Burst: Pep's Fishing Trip To Camp Nou
Pep faces ghosts of Barca past, Wenger’s reality check & Icardi’s Wanda Wall – 5 Wednesday wonders in the hump day of sport.
By Tim Stannard
1) Pep in half-hearted play for Leo Messi
Leo Messi should stay at Barcelona. Forever. Seriously. I hope he does. I know him so well, love him to bits and Barcelona will always be in my soul. Messi should never leave. But maybe he may want to? Maybe he wants to experience fish and chips and warm beer and something called cricket? Maybe he might want to learn English. There could be a club that wants him. Maybe five. Just sayin'.
That was the balance beam vibe from Pep Guardiola ahead of Manchester City's visit to the Camp Nou on Wednesday in a humungous Champions League clash that has the media asking pretty much the same kind of questions as when the Man City boss travelled there with Bayern Munich last year.
Those questions were handled with aplomb including the Messi topic which would have placated both Barcelona fans and cheered his Manchester City bosses with Pep dipping his fishing rod into the pool of possibility.
On the footballing side of things, a victory for Barcelona over their English rivals should be enough to seal the deal at the top of the table and leave City scrabbling about for second.
2) Wenger admits that winning trophies would be good
Arsene Wenger woke up on Tuesday with one of those annoying moments of reality that ruin life. The Emirates boss realized that his club might actually have to win something, some day, to keep some big names happy.
Both Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have reached the final 20 months of their current deals and need to be tempted with the idea of a trophy-celebrating open-top bus tour and the opportunity to wear a jaunty hat. “It is more about whether the club can meet their needs on the football front,” admitted the Arsenal boss.
The Gunners are in action against Ludogorets in another Champions League attempt to avoid getting knocked out in the first qualifying round all over again. Remember to tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT followed by the Locker Room at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT for all the goals and best analysis.
3) Modric hopes Madrid to be his final football resting place
Contract extensions appear to be the new player signings in Spain with a host of big names being wheeled out in front of the media over the past month to announce that they are staying on at club they had no intention of leaving anyway.
Luka Modric is the latest as he chatted away over a deal that should keep the footballer at the Santiago Bernabeu until 2020. It was also an opportunity to keep the Croatian midfielder busy as he recovers from a knee op. “I hope this is my last contract renewal,” joshed Modric, a day after Madrid’s comfy 5-1 win over Legia Warsaw in the Champions League.
4) Fenerbahce plane suffers bird strike on trip to Manchester
Fenerbahce had a rather troubled trip from Turkey to Manchester to play a Europa League game on Thursday when the charter flight they hired suffered a bird strike and was forced to make an emergency landing. The plane landed in Budapest and another plane was sent to take the squad to the English city.
5) Wanda denies Icardi exit from Inter
It’s Mauro Icardi against the Ultras Day 5, the day when Wanda-wall steps in. The Inter striker’s wife and agent has strongly refuted any notions that Icardi will have his captaincy taken from him, let alone leave the Milan club. "Get that out of your head,” stormed Wanda Nara to Corriere della Serra.
The footballer has received all manner of abuse and threats from Inter’s Ultras after a passage from Icardi’s book described an incident from the 2014-15 season when the footballer claims to have offered to bring in 100 Argentinean tough men from the homeland to fight them.
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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.