LONDON (UK) – Players of Manchester City will be using the bar at Cheltenham Town’s stadium to change when they visit for an FA Cup match on Saturday. But their fourth-tier hosts are determined to make the squad of Pep Guardiola as comfortable as possible, said manager Michael Duff.
City, which enjoy a market value of over 950 million pounds ($1.3 billion) as estimated by specialist website Transfermarkt, will play their fourth-round encounter at the Jonny-Rocks Stadium where away teams have used the Victory Bar as a changing room during the pandemic crisis.
Asked what would be City’s expensively assembled side opinion of the facilities at Whaddon Road, Duff said, “I don’t know, probably not a lot with the stadiums they play in every week.
“They’ll be getting changed in a lounge, as in, a bar, but we’ll make it as hospitable as we can. I don’t think there’s anything special for them, but all protocols are in place.
“I’d imagine they’ll be in the same place as everyone else has, but with a few more staff than League Two teams. Hopefully we can give them everything they need to make it a good day.”
Duff expressed confidence over City having no issues about the state of their pitch.
“It isn’t a League Two pitch so to speak. You aren’t going to get a Ronnie Radford scene where it’s like a ploughed field,” Duff said, referring to the ex-Hereford United player’s FA Cup stunner against Newcastle United on a muddy pitch in 1972.
“They’ll be able to play football on it and we won’t be training on it for the next three days trying to make it as bad as possible because there’s a league campaign after this. We pride ourselves on playing good football.”