It will be refreshing to see Pep Guardiola back in the dugout today. The Manchester City manager has been rather busy off the pitch lately, taking centre stage as he flexes his self-importance: first on the thorny subject of Gaza, and then lashing out at the rules that apply to every football club but which he appears to think shouldn’t apply to his own team. Who does he think he is?

Has that success gone to Pep Guardiola’s head?

Has that success gone to Pep Guardiola’s head?

Despite being in the middle of the season – and the fact his team are trailing league leaders Arsenal – Guardiola popped up in Barcelona last month to address a rally in support of Palestinian children. Wearing a keffiyeh, naturally, the City boss implored world leaders to do more to support the people of Palestine. He called for a ‘step forward’ as he made what he said was ‘a statement for Palestine and…a statement for humanity’.

After returning to his day job, Guardiola used a press conference last week to condemn the ‘genocide in Palestine’. That intervention led Manchester’s Jewish community to urge Guardiola to be to be ‘more careful with his future language’. The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester also accused him of a ‘total failure’ to display solidarity with Manchester’s Jewish community in the wake of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack last year. That act of terrorism, which unfolded just a few miles from City’s stadium, left two people dead.

Guardiola hasn’t only been........

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