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An egg in the microwave and the bald head of Pep Guardiola have more in common than their smooth appearance.
The slightest touch could explode one or the other.
The Manchester City manager seems on the verge of cracking and that is understandable.
He was nailed to the ground.
His team could not take flight.
An administrative error prevented City from traveling to China for the start of their pre-season tour.
Two times.
By the time you read this, the English Premier League champions should have finally arrived in China, but Guardiola will still be a study of pent-up rage.
He is a control maniac unable to influence the circumstances around him.
He did not want to go to China in the first place, and certainly not two and a half weeks before the community shield.
Ironically, Guardiola is at least authoritative when he needs his authority the most.
It does not determine the location of its friendly pre-season matches and does not coordinate matches.
Marketing men occupy it.
Once in Asia, City will face West Ham United and Newcastle United or Wolverhampton Wanders in China, Kitchee FC in Hong Kong and finally Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.
Guardiola is probably not interested in either sites or opponents, but it is the short window of the football calendar when its considerations are less important than those looking for new sponsors in the most lucrative markets of the world. ;Asia.
Like his jet lag team, he goes where the money goes.
It is therefore relatively easy to guess the current mood of a manager that generates tens of thousands of results in a Google search for "Pep Guardiola" and "meticulous".
This is a delicate man who has already had a lively discussion with City ground staff over 4mm.
When he arrived in Manchester, he insisted that the grbad of Etihad Stadium be cut to the height of his specifications.
He asked for 19mm.
Same length that had produced the same football slick at Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
When ground staff pointed out that the colder Manchester climate required a slightly longer and more resistant grbad blade, Guardiola agreed to 23 mm and not one millimeter more.
STATE OF VOLATILE SPIRIT
Imagine the unstable state of mind of this man when he was told that the team's aircraft had been immobilized not one, but twice, and most relations with them. media in China had been canceled and its training plans needed to be redefined quickly.
The inside of Guardiola's head must look like the New Year's night sky while the clock is ringing at midnight.
Even though City's plane finally took off last night – at the third request – it will arrive in China just 24 hours before a friendly against West Ham, present in the country for several days.
Guardiola was not particularly seduced by the prospect of a pre-season jaunt in China.
Poor weather and uneven planning have wreaked havoc on City's previous visit in 2016, when a Manchester Derby in Beijing was postponed due to a waterlogged terrain ( it was the rainy season).
The Spanish is looking for all the benefits in his preparations.
He will seek in the strangest places to find a way of pressure, anything that could give his team an advantage.
When Guardiola succeeded Manuel Pellegrini, he was informed of the cliques in the locker room.
So he played a parent to bitchy teens.
He turned off the Wi-Fi around the training ground.
His players would talk to each other, not one on the other on mobile phones.
He considers every angle imaginable, sometimes literally.
Last year, at a press conference, he had been spotted in a viral clip straightening the reporters' cell phones until they were perfectly lined up.
Nothing can be moved or insolent in his presence.
But City's pre-season preparations were a bit of both.
They will arrive three days late for a branding exercise in which Guardiola does not particularly want to participate, in a part of the world in which he does not wish to participate currently, for a handful of friendly matches which he does not really want to play.
In a sense, the administrative errors of the city are strangely rebaduring.
Even the most underhanded corporate machines endure the flight and visa delays of the average traveler.
But Guardiola is not heading for badtails and a lounge chair by the pool.
He is at work and unable to dominate his workplace. This must drive him against the wall.
The boss of the city must control every aspect of his football environment.
For the next two weeks, however, a foreign environment will control it pretty much.
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