Sunderland manager, Lee Johnson, regrets his joke gone wrong about Arsenal as both clubs prepare to meet each other in the Carabao Cup tomorrow.
Before the draw for the quarterfinal of the competition, Johnson had joked he would love to meet the Gunners, suggesting they are not among the top clubs left in the competition.
However, in his press conference ahead of tomorrow’s fixture, he apologised for the joke and said he was simply trying to be an interesting manager.
He said via Mirror Football: “I regret if it offended anyone and it was tongue in cheek dad banter! My Twitter feed didn’t read it like that even three days after!
“On a serious note, I have a problem with the way it was reported. You try not to be vanilla to give enough hook lines for you to go off and give value.
“I don’t want to be a grey, vanilla, boring manager, especially at League One level, that people can’t feed off. Sometimes that is negative, sometimes positive.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Although Johnson has apologised, his words should serve as a motivation to Arsenal’s stars in this fixture.
We expect Mikel Arteta to field a strong team and they need to send a message to Johnson that we are indeed inside the top four now.
Sunderland has been struggling to get promoted back into the Championship and they should be easy for us to beat.
So funny
What he said in the first time was in a very bad taste, however much he tries to cover it up now. We should take his statement as a motivation to beat Sunderland. That said, no team is small and no game is easy. Arsenal must play with all seriousness and force to beat them.
….2..8th place finnish…..no offense…….but Arsenal is not a Sunderland……Arsenal will be in the top 3 again sooner than you think…..
Arsenal is on another planète than Sunderland….In terms of support World wide brand prestige History AND current team and work…..I agree We’r heading the right way…
Everyone that’s offended grow up please, you’ll live I promise you! Too many over sensitive people around.
Once he’s apologised we accept and move on to trash them
@PJ-SA
RealTalk…
Tomi out injured, Mari and Lokonga both out with covid.
Regarding the article, I’ll be more offended if Cedric is deputising for Tomiyasu.
Bloody hell it’s banter! What’s wrong with twitter folk?!!
Time to unleash Balogun?
OT.. Saliba made Ligue 1 Team of the Year 👍
Who cares what a Sunderland coach says? He doesn’t matter
The man has a sense of humour
thank you sue..
i found it very funny
😊
Surely, he does, and also deserves being recompense with an emphatic defeat against THE INVINCIBLE ARSENAL. Lets hope Arteta is kindhearted enough to grant him that😁
His time iz up no regret