Manchester United and Manchester City are the two most successful clubs of the Premier League era, but top-level superstars (or their partners) have savaged the city of Manchester itself.
A report from the Daily Mail claims that Ruben Amorim’s wife has not settled in Manchester and is unhappy in the city. That’s a classic piece of tabloid fodder that at this point we’re very well accustomed to.
Here are eight of the most memorable put-downs on Manchester from big-name players and their partners.
David de Gea
We thank De Gea’s wife Edurne Garcia for giving us one of the great football quotes of recent times, with a claim that Manchester is “uglier than the back of a fridge.”
“It’s not very nice, that’s for sure,” the singer, who has represented Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest, told entertainment show El Hormiguero.
“You have to hunt out specific places, the nicer places. But even then Spain is nicer. The reason I like it is because David’s there. With him being there, everything looks wonderful.”
A very diplomatic answer.
Edurne gave those quotes in 2015, a few months before that pesky fax machine scuppered a move back to Madrid.
You imagine she’ll have been gutted, especially given that De Gea ended up staying in Manchester for another eight years.
“We have been like this for fourteen years,” she revealed last year.
“Distance is not a problem, we live our life at a distance because our work has required it.”
Nolito
“My daughter has a bad colour in her face and everything,” the Spanish striker said of his time in Manchester, back when he was out of favour at City, in 2017.
“It seems like she has been living in a cave.”
A few weeks later, he left City for sunnier climes and signed for Sevilla. Going to the warmest city in continental Europe was just the tonic after his years of cave-dwelling.
Angel Di Maria
“I didn’t like it at all… I can tell you,” Di Maria’s wife Jorgelina Cardoso told Argentinian TV show LAM.
“People are all weird. You walk around and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you. The food is disgusting. The women look like porcelain.
“Angel and I were in Madrid, at the best team in the world, perfect food, perfect weather, everything was perfect. And then came United’s proposal…
“I told him ‘no way, no way’, but he kept saying we will be a little more financially secure and we have to go. We fought about it… We try to be closer when things go wrong.
“I don’t blame him for going there. It was horrible, so horrible. I just told him, ‘Darling, I want to kill myself, it’s nighttime at two o’clock.’”
Tell us how you really feel, Jorgelina.
Believe it or not, that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
Manchester United's new signing Angel Di Maria (R) speaks with manager Louis van Gaal as he arrives for a news conference at Old Trafford in Manchester, northern England August 28, 2014.
READ: Angel Di Maria’s Man Utd nightmare in quotes: ‘Talented but a complete fanny’
Ilkay Gundogan
“Sorry, I’m sad to be honest but nothing,” Ilkay’s wife Sara posted on Instagram, in response to restaurant recommendations in the city.
“I tried so bad to find a good restaurant, but horrible food everywhere. Can’t find a real Italian or good sushi or just fresh food… everywhere frozen.”
Bit harsh? And to rub further salt into Manchester’s wound, she went on to talk up the capital:
“Maybe in London but in Manchester nothing. I’m sorry.”
The climate was reportedly a big factor in the German’s departure from the Etihad in 2023.
We’re sure his wife will have been thrilled to return 12 months later, back to a city where apparently the culinary experience extends only to Bernard Matthews’ Turkey Dinosaurs.
Carlos Tevez
“There is nothing to do in Manchester,” Tevez once claimed.
“The weather, everything. It has nothing and the problem is I am still speaking very poor English. “When I finish my contract, I will not return to Manchester ever, not even on holiday. Not for anything.”
The only man to win the Premier League title with both Manchester clubs. He’s also – as far as we’re aware – the only player to fly halfway around the world to play some golf while the season was ongoing.
“I’m never going back, not even on holiday, not for anything,” he later said.
Cristiano Ronaldo
“I like to play for Manchester – better than [I like] the weather. The weather is very difficult for me because you see snow, every time, and rain,” the five-time Ballon d’Or winner said, back when he was on the rise, in 2006.
“It’s difficult compared to Portugal, where you see sun every day, which is why it’s difficult for me. But the club is massive and I’m very happy for staying here.”
In hindsight, the writing was always on the wall when it came to Madrid.
Anthony Martial
“Manchester weather, cooking when I’m tired and English cuisine,” the Frenchman responded when asked what he didn’t like about Manchester.
And what did he like?
“Football,” Martial replied.
“It sounds simple but it’s always been the case – I don’t see myself living without playing.”
We’re sensing a theme here.
Juan Sebastian Veron
“England has a spectacular Premier League but that’s it. They don’t train very much and there were no proper warm-ups at Manchester United,” the Argentinian recalled of his infamously ill-fated stint at Old Trafford.
“Paul Scholes would turn up and fire off a shot, without warming up, from 50 metres towards the goal even when it was minus five degrees.
“I did that once and I pulled a muscle from my knee to my hip. I was never happy in England and my time there made me question my desire to continue playing.”
To be fair, Veron’s ire seemingly also extends to London, Rome, Genoa, Milan and Parma – admitting he was never really happy anywhere outside of South America.
“I wandered around Europe like a gypsy, without ever finding happiness or somebody who understood me. That’s why I went back to Estudiantes.”
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