When Josep Guardiola first met Antoine Semenho at Manchester City, he immediately made him feel welcome with a pleasant aroma and soothing music.
Guardiola, 55, has developed a reputation as a demanding perfectionist. Semenyo has seen that side of the iconic manager and was surprised to find his new manager such a welcoming host.
In an interview with Sky Bet’s In the Mixer, Semenho spoke about his first visit to the Catalans’ office: “He was in great spirits. When I walked into his office, there was soft music playing in the background and the office smelled really nice.
“He was like, ‘We’re happy to have you here. Stay well here and hopefully be in the league.’
However, Semenyo almost embarrassed himself in front of his new colleagues when he was alarmed by one of Pep’s disturbing tendencies.
“To be fair, he’s generally relaxed,” he continued. “He’s serious when he’s in a meeting.
“I remember the first time I had a (team) meeting, he was just walking around the front of the room, and (I was) like, ‘Is this normal?'” Looking back, no one is laughing, so I’m all alone here. But he’s very passionate. ”
Semenyo has made an excellent start to his Etihad career, scoring eight goals and providing three assists in 19 appearances. However, not all of his good qualities are fully utilized. The 26-year-old was frequently used in long-throw duties at Bournemouth, to great effect. However, under Guardiola, hitting the ball into the box is prohibited.
Title challengers Arsenal have established themselves as the Premier League’s set-piece masters this season, wreaking havoc with long throws and corners. But this is not a tactic we expect Guardiola to adopt anytime soon.
Semenyo said: “Oh, I have a long throw. I don’t know where or how (I got it). Maybe it’s because I’m so strong…”
“Andoni (Iraola) saw that and thought: ‘Wow, we have to use this. We have to use it.’ To be honest, Pep doesn’t want to see long throws.”
“Some of the guys are going to say, ‘Are you going to go long?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. Because Pep obviously wants to keep it on the floor…”
(Image: Karl Lesseen/Getty Images)
Semenyo credits much of his progress in recent seasons to soon-to-be-departed Bournemouth manager Iraola. And he highlighted the similarities between Iraola and new manager Guardiola, which contradicts suggestions that Pep is stifling the creativity of certain players such as Jack Grealish and Phil Foden.
When asked about the biggest influence Iraola had on his game, Semenyo said: “Playing more freely. A lot of the practice sessions were chaotic and it was like you had to do what you wanted as a person.”
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“I was just doing freestyle and stuff, and[Andoni]said, ‘You should do that in a game.’ And I was like, ‘Do you want me to do something like Rainbow Flick in a game?’” He said, “Yeah, if you want to do that.” Just play freely and be yourself. ”
“Since that day, I have always been free and I still stand by what he said today in the Man City team: just be free and enjoy it.”
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