Former Leeds United assistant manager Karl Robinson has lifted the lid on Sam Allardyce’s Pep Guardiola claim before his side faced Manchester City last season.
Allardyce was appointed Leeds boss with four games of the season remaining and tasked with guiding the club away from relegation.
The former England manager failed, but his short spell in charge at Elland Road will forever be associated with City.
Ahead of his first game in charge – against City – Allardyce told reporters that he was just as good a manager as Guardiola.
“People think I’m old and antiquated. It’s so far from the truth,” the then-Leeds boss said.
“There is no one ahead of me in football terms – not Pep [Guardiola], not [Jurgen] Klopp, not [Mikel] Arteta.
“They do what they do, I do what I do. But in terms of depth of depth of knowledge, I am up there with them.
“I am not saying I am better than them, but I am as good as them.”
Robinson lifts lid
Now, Allardyce’s assistant at the time has shared what Guardiola did when the pair met before City’s 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.
“The Pep Guardiola thing was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen,” Robinson told The I Had Trials Once podcast.
“We were having lunch and he turns to me and says, ‘I need to do something here – I need to create a bit of a smokescreen, the players look nervous, they don’t look like they can deal with the pressure.’
“I told him to make something up and throw something out there.
“Later, I was in his office with Keano having a coffee, and he storms in with a massive smile on his face, and says, ‘I’ve only said I’m better than Pep and Klopp [to the media], haven’t I?’
“The press officer then walks in and he says, ‘let’s see how many bites you get on that one!’ Obviously the next day it was everywhere – it was front page and back page of the papers – and he says to the players, ‘right, there’s no pressure on you now, it’s all on me’.
“He was trying to take all the pressure off the players and put it on him. We then played against City and you could tell Pep knew what Sam was doing, he just looked at him and smiled and nodded his head. You could tell they both respected each other.”
