BENJAMIN MENDY ENTHRALLS and infuriates Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
“Mendy has a lot of things to improve,” Guardiola said after City’s 2-0 Premier League victory at Arsenal on Sunday.
“Hopefully we can convince him to be calm, to forget a little bit the social media and focus on what he has to do.”
The France defender had an immediate reply to Guardiola’s comments in the post-match news conference — via Twitter, of course.
Mendy replied, “Oops”, and then tweeted to the club account, “I will I promise”.
Oops 😅 https://t.co/dVBYJNbKPM
— Benjamin Mendy (@benmendy23) August 12, 2018
I will I promise 😁💙
— Benjamin Mendy (@benmendy23) August 12, 2018
Mendy is renowned for irreverent messages and videos on social media, communicating with fans while sidelined for most of last season with knee ligament damage. He only managed to feature in eight games last season before making one second-half appearance at the World Cup in France’s run to the title.
Mendy completed the entire game at Arsenal as City made a victorious start to its title defence. After setting up the goals for Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva, Mendy had a chance to score himself in the 85th minute but he was denied by goalkeeper Petr Cech.
When it was pointed out to Guardiola that the full-back sometimes acts like a striker, the manager replied: “That is not good. Mendy is Mendy. It is what it is.
“Sometimes you want to kill him and sometimes you say, ‘Wow, what a player we have.’ He gives us this extra energy with Kyle [Walker] that helps us. When he attacks with that consistency, it is so important. Mendy has a lot of things to improve.”
That apparently includes spending less time online.
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