Pep Guardiola was overcome with emotion on the touchline as Manchester City and their visitors observed a tribute to Ricky Hatton before the Manchester derby. Hatton died on Sunday, hours before the fixture, and the Etihad paid respects in a formal moment that left the City manager visibly fighting back tears.<\/p>\n
Both sets of players wore black armbands and the match was preceded by a minute’s applause from everyone in attendance. Those elements combined created a somber atmosphere that clearly affected Guardiola as he watched from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
City issued an emotional statement earlier in the day: \u201cManchester City are devastated to learn of the sad passing of City fan and boxing legend Ricky Hatton, aged 46,\u201d City wrote in an emotional statement earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHatton wore sky blue shorts and used Blue Moon as his walkout song throughout his career\u2014and in 2008 he fulfilled another dream when he fought Juan Lazcano at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cRicky was one of City\u2019s most loved and revered supporters. He will always be remembered.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone at the Club would like to send our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends at this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manchester United also offered a message of respect: \u201cSending our heartfelt condolences to Ricky\u2019s loved ones on the loss of a legend of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scene at the stadium combined ritual and remembrance: armbands, a collective minute of applause and visible emotion from a manager known for his composure. Those present observed a short, unified pause to mark the death of a supporter who had a lasting connection to the club and the venue where he once fought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola fought back tears as the Etihad observed a minute’s applause and both teams wore armbands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,969],"tags":[1014,1015],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","tag-memorial","tag-ricky-hatton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}