Man City midfielder Bernardo Silva has labelled Liverpool fans mocking his side’s exit from the Champions League as “pathetic,” telling them to “go celebrate your titles.”
At times, Bernardo has come across as one of the most intelligent, gracious footballers in the Premier League, but he is also a very emotional character.
With City suffering a shock 3-1 defeat to Lyon in the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Saturday night—the furthest they have reached since 2016—the Portuguese was the target of messages from Reds supporters.
Many of those referenced the City squad’s singing of a disrespectful version of Allez, Allez, Allez—including the line “battered in the streets” after the attack on Sean Cox—in 2018, as well as Bernardo’s feeble effort in the guard of honour at the Etihad in July.
It clearly struck a nerve, with the 26-year-old following up his initial tweet on a “frustrating season” with a jibe at “pathetic” Liverpool supporters.
“And to all Liverpool fans that have nothing else to do than to come to a Man City player account, I’m also sorry for you but for the wrong reasons,” he wrote.
“Pathetic…go celebrate your titles, or try to find a partner, drink a beer with a friend, read a book…so many options!”
This comes on the back of a season that promised much for City, with ambitions of a quadruple in the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League, but ended with just the FA Cup.
Pep Guardiola also counts the Community Shield a major honour, so they can consider themselves to have picked up a double in 2019/20.
There is nothing wrong with Bernardo defending himself or his side, but it shows a lack of grace and humility, when so often the Liverpool squad have acted in exemplary fashion in defeat.
With Kevin De Bruyne picking up the Premier League‘s Player of the Season award on Sunday morning, there has been no crying over the likes of Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane being overlooked for individual honours.
The focus has remained on pre-season, with the Reds preparing for a campaign in which they will hope to defend their title.
Bernardo will likely regret his rash criticism, and the tweet may not remain on his Twitter feed for much longer, but it is another example of the City squad taking things to heart when it would be better to ignore it and move on.
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