GRAEME SOUNESS: Forget Pep, this mess is on City’s players

The stress of managing Manchester City has been evident on Pep Guardiola's face lately following their capitulation against Feyenoord in midweek.

After all, this is a new experience for him. He is a man of many details, a serial winner, he will question himself, looking for answers. We talk about stress in management. I kicked over bottles, punched walls, and smashed a television in the Dunfermline dressing room. I behaved like a child, lost control of all emotions and what did the players learn from it? Nothing.

This isn't about what Pep does, it's about his players and what they do to regain faith.

When I played for Liverpool in 1981, we lost 3-1 to Manchester City at Anfield on Boxing Day. It left us in twelfth place in the league, nine points behind the leaders. The headlines were all about 'End of the Empire', 'the Empire is crumbling'.

That hurt because at Liverpool you were constantly reminded of the great players who had come before you and the dynasty they had created.

A few days before our next match, an FA Cup tie at Swansea, Joe Fagan, Bob Paisley's assistant at the time, took us to Liverpool's training ground, Melwood. I can remember the exact spot, there was supposed to be a bloody memorial stone there, just on the edge of the A team field.

And Joe said, 'You bastards, that's it. We said everything we could. Now it's up to you. I suggest you guys have a night out and sort it out between your damn personalities.”

Like all footballers at the time, we didn't need much encouragement to go for a drink, but it did give us the opportunity to open up about what we thought we were doing wrong, to air our grievances and to make a difference. to have a good conversation. talking to each other.

We knew we had to find that extra yard, that extra belief, that extra aggression. It was also about being brave and wanting to be on the ball when the game wasn't going our way and not hiding.

We regrouped and we went on a great run, losing only twice in 25 games to go through and win the league title. Bob would later say that this was the hardest to win.

For Manchester City it is now about regaining that belief, that trust. There should be plenty of it given their recent history of winning trophies, and Pep will be looking for the leaders in the group to have the conversations we as Liverpool players had and get them through this quagmire. It's solely up to them.

Pep is so successful with this group that it is not about doing things differently or talking to them in a different way. It's not broken. These players must now stand up and be counted.

We've heard pointed comments about the age of the City squad affecting the intensity, and many are 29, even 30. That's not the problem here. Diets are better, fitness is better, fields are better, travel is better. Everything in the modern game is aimed at longevity. When I played, I had my best season when I was 31, my last at Liverpool. It has nothing to do with age.

Since I stopped playing, I must have had other players say to me a dozen or more times, “When we played against you, it seemed like you were a team of men.”

And looking back, the core of our teams were in their mid-to-late 20s. People who had been through the mill with extensive experience.

For many of these City players this is a new experience: not looking forward to going to work every day, not having the same resilience, the usual camaraderie or banter. There will be some accusing fingers. But now is not the time for that. Now is the time to look in the mirror and question themselves, not the man sitting next to them in the locker room.

That's what Pep needs to see now. He wants the real men to take charge from the front because he has now said all he can say. That's what champions do.

Salah's contract expires

When Mohamed Salah says he has not yet received an 'offer' from Liverpool, it would be naive to take it as anything other than a pun.

Liverpool and their representatives have discussed a new contract and talks are ongoing. I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise. Both Liverpool and the player need to know where they stand, because he could sign a pre-contract with a foreign team in just over a month.

Liverpool have been as good as anyone in their recruitment over the last decade, which I think is always the most important thing for any football club to get right. They are constantly looking to improve what they have and that will take some effort from the excellent group they have now.

But nothing has changed at Liverpool. When I returned there as manager, I had a chat with Tom Saunders, the right-hand man of Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish.

Tom watched through the small office window with a metal grille on the outside, as my players ran past Melwood, and told a story. When Bob was manager, he would often look through that same window and say, “I'm not happy with him,” then… “I think we can do better in that position,” and then… “I think that he's quitting…' and these were comments about a team that won a league title or the European Cup every year.

So they were never completely satisfied with the group they had and that was a big part of Liverpool's success over the decades.

Still, at 32, Salah is in a good situation. He is better now than the day he arrived at Anfield just over seven years ago. He has proven his worth in the pantheon of Liverpool greats.

Some Liverpool watchers would now put him in their greatest-ever squad, and that's no light statement when you look at the greats who have come before them. He is adorable in the way he takes on challenges, rarely gets hurt and is at the peak of his powers. There are many ways to make an agreement work and they have to find them.

When Arne Slot took over at Liverpool, I said in this column that the biggest job ahead of him was not recruiting new players, but getting Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to sign new contracts. That's how it proves.

If it's a football decision, where do you go after Liverpool? Possibly Real Madrid, but nowhere else.

If I were to guess, I'd say Salah and Van Dijk will still be Liverpool players next summer, but perhaps Alexander-Arnold, with his obvious relationship with Jude Bellingham and Real Madrid's right-back Dani Carvajal, who turned 33 in January and is recovering from a serious knee injury, will be the one to leave.

If that becomes a reality, Liverpool will, to quote a few politicians, have an oven-ready young fullback in Conor Bradley. As Kylian Mbappé can now testify, he is full of energy, full of quality and destined to become a star.

Keane's confrontation

Have I ever faced abuse from a football fan while doing TV punditry? Of course I did. That's why I was a little surprised to see Roy Keane react the way he responded to comments from an Ipswich Town fan last week.

We live in a society where it is considered acceptable to shout insults at people in a football stadium. That's how it's always been. I've been in football for over 50 years and it's even more acceptable now that they dismiss it as 'banter'.

Sometimes alcohol can be involved and, combined with a safe distance, some of these characters adopt a courage where they think they can shout whatever they want.

Personally, I've always seen it as 'that's the price on the ticket'. It happened to me most weeks and I always took the 'sticks and stones' position. It never changes.

Roy gives an honest opinion. If you don't, you won't be asked back the following week, that's the nature of the business. He has his own style that often makes headlines and sometimes that means you can't always be nice to the people you're talking about.

That can stick in the minds of the supporters and they will remember it the next time you are back in the stadium.

Roy has been in the tooth long enough to know all that. He has been a player, a manager and now a pundit. I can't speak for him as to why he reacted the way he did.

But what I can tell you is that I like Roy and I enjoy working with him. He is not what you would initially think, as he is very humorous, no less than a one-liner, and mischievous. That doesn't excuse people shouting profanities, but I doubt this will ever change.