BT Sport are set to add a lipreader to their football coverage following Man City’s fraught second-leg Champions League quarter-final clash with Atletico Madrid, Paddy Power News understands.
Wednesday night’s game descended into acrimony in injury-time as Phil Foden was encouraged to get off the field of play by the Spanish side’s centre-half, Stefan Savic.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 05: Stefan Savic of Atletico Madrid interact with Jack Grealish of Manchester City during the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Leg One match between Manchester City and Atletico Madrid at City of Manchester Stadium on April 05, 2022 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
And events hurtled further out of control when the defender clashed with City substitute-turned-Gucci model Jack Grealish, who had some choice words for the seething stopper.
What exactly he said remained a mystery on the post-match coverage, with Savic pulling the City player’s hair like a boy trying to get the attention of the girl he fancies in the school playground getting all the attention instead.
“It’s just impossible to know what was said,” a source within the broadcaster said as they explained the move to introduce a specialist lip-reading pundit for future high-profile fixtures. “Especially when his mouth’s been blurred in replays.”
“Clearly Jack can be seen saying something before the hair-pulling, though we can’t imagine that it was anything in any way derogatory or insulting, can you?”
“My own opinion is he was clearly asking Savic, ‘who are you trying to shunt?’ referring to the defender’s efforts to move Foden off the pitch.”
“Though he may have been inviting him to join him on the Berkshire Hunt year, or possibly suggesting he chill out by listening to some James Blunt.”
“There are quite a few possibilities.”
Whatever was said, from next season onwards BT will have an expert lipreader on-hand to clear up any confusing utterances.
“It’s a natural addition to our comprehensive coverage,” we were told. “Clearly we need to know just how creative the insults are between players on the pitch.”
“We’ve already got Peter Walton on-hand to get everything wrong on referee decisions, several ex-United pros doing everything to avoid criticising their mates still at the club, and we’re hopeful an interpreter will be able to decipher the meaning of every Paul Scholes’ grunt, sigh and moan in real-time during games.”
“It’s everything you could want for the biggest games.”
MADRID, SPAIN – APRIL 13: Stefan Savic (L) of Atletico de Madrid competes for the ball with Raheem Sterling (R) of Manchester City FC during the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Leg Two match between Atletico Madrid and Manchester City at Wanda Metropolitano on April 13, 2022 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
Meanwhile in Madrid, 31-year-old Savic, who was involved in a series of altercations towards the end of the scoreless second-leg has claimed they were all just a series of misunderstandings.
Speaking to a close friend, the former City defender claimed he “could never find the right stylist” during his time in Manchester and was struck by the quality of craftmanship shown in the England attacker’s locks, so much so that he couldn’t help grabbing the Sky Blues star’s mop and yanking it as hard as he could.
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“Stefan would’ve had to fly in a hairdresser from the US if he wanted a look like that when he was at City – he couldn’t believe Jack got it done locally.” we were told as our source winked repeatedly, tapped his nose and prodded our reporter with his elbow.
And his apparent headbutt on Raheem Sterling also had an innocent explanation.
“He was just really curious to see the Raheem’s eyebrows really, really close-up,” we were assured, while the unfortunate scenes in the tunnel after the game were owing to an excessive enthusiasm to swap shirts with his opponents.
Following the intense conclusion of the tie, City now return to the loving bosom of Liverpool for a friendly knockabout in the FA Cup this weekend.
*Paddy Power’s breaking news coverage is 100% fake news, and that’s the truth – honest*
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