Sky Sports were forced to apologise after Pep Guardiola dropped an F-bomb on live television while bidding farewell to the Etihad crowd after his final game in charge.
Guardiola, who announced the news on Friday, said in his pre-recorded message that when he arrived, his first interview was with Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, and he was left thinking, ‘this will be fun’.
He paid homage to that moment in his farewell speech on Sunday, after the curtain fell on his decade-long and heavily decorated tenure at the Manchester club.
The 55-year-old told the crowd: ‘A minute of silence, please. I am so nervous, terrified. Why do you love me so much? Why do you do that to me?
‘I never… (Ten more years chants, Pep shakes his head). No, just for Erling (Haaland). I never could have imagined the amount of love.
‘It has been an incredible, tremendous honour to be your manager, to be here for 10 years. The (farewell) video was so long, and there is a reason why: because of the number of trophies and the incredible emotions.
Guardiola said in his farewell message to the fans that when he arrived, his first interview was with Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, and he was left thinking, ‘this will be fun’
‘In many years this stand, which looks really beautiful, will bear the name of my family, and that is a huge honour,’ Guardiola told the adoring Etihad crowd
‘I would love us not just to remember the trophies that we won, which was the reason why I stayed 10 years. Hopefully, we provided you with these unbelievable feelings and emotions, so that people who come here feel they have fun. And that is why we are here.
‘Let me have a little break. Yesterday my dad – who is here in the stands – turned 95 years old. Maybe he doesn’t realise, but I am pretty sure Cris – an exceptional woman – and my kids realise that in many years this stand, which looks really beautiful, will bear the name of my family, and that is a huge honour.
‘That’s why I want to say thank you so much to Sheikh Mansour, but especially Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who put the real pressure on to deliver this immense honour that I will have for the rest of my life. The name of my family, which represents my dad here and my mum watching us from above, will be here.
‘The players don’t know it, but I will be there, controlling them to continue to make the performances that create a legacy. Today, Fernandinho, what an honour to be here with us. Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan), Eddy (Ederson), John (Stones), Bernie (Bernardo Silva), and all the players who were on the screen.
‘Congratulations to John and Bernie for their incredible careers – for, I don’t know, a thousand, a million games played in our shirt.
‘The players, they have to know that they have a huge responsibility to maintain these standards. Hopefully they continue to fight and fight and fight, and give everything to this amazing club where I never, ever could have expected to have spent 10 years. But from day one, it was my home.
‘Just one more thing before I go home to have some beer or wine. In the next years, if you’re around the world – in Europe or the States – and you find me in the streets and you are a Man City fan, come to me and hug me, I will need it.
‘Like I said, it has been a huge honour to represent this club. Whenever I made a thousand, a million decisions – with a thousand, a million mistakes – every decision I took, I always thought: “What is best for this club?”
‘I love you so much. Let me finish what I said a few days ago – they didn’t allow me to say it: it has been f****** fun.’
