MANCHESTER CITY’S alarming slump over this season has been something of a puzzle.
Some say the clues had been there for some time — but even the old master himself Pep Guardiola has struggled to solve it.
One thing the Etihad boss knows is the campaign would have been even more difficult without City’s ‘Crossword King’.
Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol was given the nickname by veteran 39-year-old keeper Scott Carson as he has recently started doing word games.
And this week Guardiola plucked out a good word to describe his versatile defender — calling him a ‘warrior’.
With many of Pep’s backline going down injured, Gvardiol has started all but two of his team’s 30 Prem matches this season.
The former RB Leipzig man has also proved himself to be a box-to-box defender — and is currently joint third in City’s top scorers in the league this term.
Earlier this week, Guardiola said: “Josko has been like a warrior — all the time he is there.
“I cannot imagine what would happen without him.
“I’m grateful for his focus and that he is ready all the time.”
PEP’S STILL THE MAGIC MAN
By MARTIN BLACKBURN
JOSKO GVARDIOL insists Pep Guardiola is not losing his magic, despite his side’s worrying slide.
Gvardiol has worked with the Manchester City boss for two years but wishes they could have linked up earlier.
The Croatian defender feels Pep’s team talk before last Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final win at Bournemouth showed why the ex-Barcelona chief is rated so highly.
Former RB Leipzig man Gvardiol, 23, said: “When I got back home from Bournemouth, I was thinking about the meeting we had before the game.
“I said to myself ‘I’m so unlucky I haven’t joined earlier’ — I mean that I didn’t have the opportunity to work with him earlier.
“He said something that really changed my mind a little bit. I’m not going to tell you what it was.
“But I wish that you could have the opportunity to sit with him and listen to his speech.
“It was inspiring, yes, especially after the whole season.”
Guardiola will need his £77million man to stay focussed and ready if his team are to win the FA Cup and claim a Champions League spot over the next couple of months.
So in the build-up to Sunday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford, Gvardiol will have his head buried in a newspaper from back home.
Gvardiol said: “I just started doing crosswords a few days ago. So I got a new nickname from Scott Carson, it’s ‘Crossword King’.
“I’ve been getting them from newspapers in Croatia.
“Kristijan Jakic, who plays for Augsburg in Germany, is a friend of mine and when we were with the national team, one day I went to his room and I saw him doing a crossword.
“I was like, ‘what are you doing’ but to be honest I am addicted now.
“What I like to do is wake up, grab a coffee and do it for an hour or two.
“Even yesterday on the plane, on Saturday, I went to Bournemouth — and on the way back as well.
“I feel like we spend too much time on phones and things we should avoid, especially before the game, to stay focused, to stay in the game. And follow the match plan.”
Hard work and focus runs in the Gvardiol family.
His father Tihomir was a fisherman back in Croatia for many years.
Even now, he still gets up in the early hours to sell seafood at Zagreb’s biggest market — with his octopus considered a speciality.
When the Croatia international got his first pay cheque at RB Leipzig, he fulfilled a promise to buy a house with a garden for his parents back home.
Gvardiol said of his father: “He still works. He’s still doing it and I don’t know why to be honest — I’ve told him that many times.
“He needs to wake up at 4am or 5am prepare everything, put the ice, everything has to be fresh.
“But yeah, I think that’s just inside of him. He’s proud of the job, I guess.”
Gvardiol Sr has lost one customer in recent years — with young Josko moving away and also getting a bit bored of eating up all the leftover fish.
The City centre-back said: “You know what the problem is? When I was younger we used to eat a lot of fish — every two or three days.
“Obviously because he works with the fish. I wouldn’t say that I don’t like it, but I’m a bit sick of it. You eat it every day.
“But now when I go home I have it. He likes to do octopus salad with some potatoes.”
Tihomir was an amateur footballer himself and is full of advice for his boy.
He will be watching the Manchester derby at home on television as he can get a better feel for it there.
For a while the family wondered if Josko might fancy following in his father’s footsteps with a career as a fisherman — but it was clear when he ventured out to sea the first time that this would not happen.
He said: “I went out just once. I wouldn’t recommend it to you guys. It’s too loud. I was young and I wanted to sleep in the cabin.
“But the engine was too loud and the smell and everything, it is just chaos on the boat.”
Chaotic is a good word to describe City’s season but Gvardiol has provided some stability in the choppy waters.
Yet he almost decided to bail out of football altogether when the former Dinamo Zagreb player was a teenager — and focus on becoming a basketball player instead.
“I said, ‘I’m going to wait one more year and see what will happen’. As you can see, I’m still a footballer.”
Josko Gvardiol
He recalled: “Back when I was 16 or 17 I had some problems with the manager. I wasn’t happy because I was on the bench most of the games.
“At that time I was thinking, because I’m good at basketball as well, I wasn’t sure if I should continue with football or move to basketball.
“It’s like that in our family, we love every sport. Not just football, but also handball.
“My sister plays handball, my other sister plays volleyball.
“At the end, I spoke to my father about it. He said that every year there is a new manager coming.
“I said, ‘I’m going to wait one more year and see what will happen’. As you can see, I’m still a footballer.”
Ahead of tomorrow’s trip across Manchester, City fans will be grateful for that.
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