Eamon Dunphy delivered a scathing appraisal of Manchester City after Manuel Pellegrini’s team came out on the losing side of the Manchester derby on Sunday.
Marcus Rashford condemned Manchester City to a fourth defeat in their last six Premier League games, severely denting the club’s title hopes and jeopardising their pursuit of a place in next season’s Champions League.
City’s 1-0 loss to Manchester United drew criticism from many, not least from the RTÉ pundit, who believes Pep Guardiola has a major task on his hands to revitalise the side when he succeeds Pellegrini in the summer.
“I’d say the thing that’s worrying him most is the players that are at the club, and how they got there, and how the system works at Man City,” Dunphy told 2fm’s Game On listeners.
Who bought Mangala? Who bought Fernandinho? Who is allowing Toure to wander around the middle of the pitch like an old man? He is like an old man - he just ambles around the centre circle.
“They have two very bad full-backs - Sagna - I don’t know what happened to Zabaleta, he must have committed some awful crime.
“They’ve got Gael Clichy, who’s useless, they’ve Otamendi, who’s useless.”
Dunphy added that the lucrative contracts enjoyed by City’s players means that moving players on could prove both problematic and costly.
“Those guys like Samir Nasri, they’re on 180 or 200 grand a week. They won’t leave. They’ll stay. They’ll squat in the club,” the former Republic of Ireland and Millwall man said.
“The running costs for Guardiola will be unimaginable, and for Manchester City, unsustainable. I don’t know how much oil they have in Abu Dhabi, but they’re going to need it all.
"You can’t vanish a squad of 16 or 18 players, only two or three of whom have the heart or the ability to play."
“Really, it’s not funny, this is a parable of the modern game. These guys don’t try a leg. They didn’t try yesterday at all.”
Manchester United may be well and truly in the hunt for a Champions League place, but Dunphy doesn’t believe that attaining a top-four position will necessarily save Louis van Gaal’s job.
“If they were to qualify for the Champions League, it would be difficult, or more difficult to sack him,” the veteran pundit added.
“But he has spent £350million and that’s a lot of money, and he’s got nothing, he’s bought a lot of duds.
“They showed a bit of spirit yesterday and Rashford was really good for the goal – he’s only 18.
“He walked past, nutmegged Demachalis.
“He couldn’t play for a pub team. He really couldn’t and he doesn’t give a monkeys. He gave a penalty away before half-time that wasn’t given and he walked off the pitch at half-time with a smirk on his face.
“This is what Guardiola is going to have to sort out.
“But you can’t vanish a squad of 16 or 18 players, only two or three of whom have the heart or the ability to play.
“So where are they going to put these guys? They’re going to have to give them all free transfers, which means - and this is the sickness in soccer - that if they get a free transfer, the money the money the clubs would have had to play to buy them, they [the players] get it. So it’s really, really sick.”
Despite the challenges ahead, Dunphy believes Guardiola won’t do a U-turn, saying: “I think he doesn’t see how he can get Bayern up to the level they need to be to win the Champions League – and they won’t win it.
“The other reason is the money.
“And the other reason is, I think he’s a very cultured man, I think he’ll like the experience of living in England.
“And it is still - despite all our quibbles about it - it is the epicentre of the world of soccer in a certain way. I think he’ll see the challenge because it’s a different challenge than one he’s ever faced before.
“The tempo and the intensity of the Premier League will prove a real challenge for Guardiola.
“I don’t think he’s a Messiah. I think he’s a really great coach, but he can’t do miracles.”
