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What with the pampered lives and the comforts that being millionaires bring them, you could be forgiven for thinking that the modern footballer is a watered down version of the beer drinking ‘mans man’ of yesteryear.
Turns out that’s not the case during the average Manchester City training session.
After suffering the agony of watching Sergio Aguero, Jesus Navas and Raheem Sterling all have all spotkicks denied that could have changed the out come of three recent matches, Manuel Pellegrini has set about encouraging his players to ignore such injustices and to concentrate on the game…..by allowing fouls in practise matches.
Not only does the Chilean allow for dangling legs, he punishes those who complain about it.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror about his hardened training methods, he comments;
“Sometimes I am the referee, sometimes it is Ruben [Cousillas] and sometimes it is Brian [Kidd], but the players know every day that we are all very bad referees.
“We deliberately make mistakes, so that when we play the official game the players are not thinking about the referee.
“There are fouls that we won’t whistle for because we don’t want the players to stop and make complaints. We want them to continue running.
“We try to prepare a player’s mind in that sense because, when a referee makes a mistake, is an important part of the game.
“When it happens you have a hot head, but you must continue playing.
“If the players complain in training we have punishments. It will be push-ups or laps of the pitch.
“I have always done this throughout my career.”
“The players learn to keep playing until they hear the whistle and not to react badly when the referee makes a mistake.”
Seems like an interesting exercise in keeping a cool head, still, hearts must be in mouths when Aguero goes down because of a wayward ‘training’ tackle.
(Via Manchester Evening News)