‘Cowardly’ Pep lacked respect, blasts Eto’o

Chelsea striker Samuel Eto’o has hit out at his former coach Pep Guardiola, claimed the then Barcelona coach was “a coward”.

The Cameroon striker spent one season working under Guardiola at Barcelona before transferring to Italian giants Inter, where he played for his current Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.

But in an astonishing verbal attack on Guardiola, Eto’o stated the current Bayern Munich boss rarely spoke to him at Barca, insisting he used other players to communicate instead.

“I reminded Guardiola he’d never been a great player. He was a good player, that’s true. I told him,” Eto’o blasted. “As a coach, he had proven nothing. He came in and didn’t even know the story of the dressing room.”

During his time at Camp Nou, Eto’o stated Guardiola stripped him of the number nine shirt — which the Cameroonian considered a “lack of respect” — and advised the striker to move to Uzbekistan.

“Guardiola has never had the courage to say things in front of me. He passed by the players. Xavi told me they wanted me to stay but I had to talk to Pep. I say ‘if you do not respect me, I do not respect you’. He shook hands with me when I was at Inter and I played against Barca, but this was just for cameras and TV. Behind the scenes before the match, he didn’t greet me.”