MANCHESTER CITY star John Stones has been labelled a f***ing s***bag” by former EFL striker Tom Pope.
The pair clashed after Pope, now 39, had tweeted about Stones being “soft”.
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He wrote: “I know he’s on £150k a week, I know he’s a million times better player than me but I’d love to play against John Stones every week! I’d get 40 a season!”
Pope then used the hashtags “soft” and “weakas****”.
As fate would have it, Man City subsequently drew Port Vale in the FA Cup in January 2020, giving Pope his chance to go up against Stones.
Pep Guardiola’s side went on to win 4-1, but Pope did get himself on the scoresheet at the Etihad.
After the game the Stoke-born forward claims he was dragged into the Man City dressing room by Raheem Sterling and Benjamin Mendy, but Stones wasn’t having any of the banter.
Recounting the tale while appearing on the I Had Trials Once Podcast, Pope said: “I think he was playing for England and he was so flipping soft.
“I can’t remember who he played against, might have been flipping Zlatan or somebody, I can’t remember who it was but he got battered.
“I was like, he’s a target man’s dream. Technically he’s unbelievable like, so good. I just tweeted going ‘you’d love to play against him because you’d just batter him’.
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“You’re not being derogatory about him because he never gives the ball away, he’s unbelievable on the ball, but if you’re getting balls in and going long you want John Stones over flipping (Virgil) van Dijk marking you don’t you?”
When it was put to Pope that Stones has “done well”, the striker responded: “Yeah, he’s just an absolute s***bag. Because you go in their dressing room… I didn’t go in, I was the only one who stayed in our dressing room.
“Everybody else after the game came in and had pictures and that. And I just stayed in there, I was in there for about 15 minutes.
“And then (Raheem) Sterling and (Benjamin) Mendy came in, ‘get in here, we’ve hammered him for f***ing months over your tweet, the group chat’s been f***ing mayhem’.
“I’m like ‘I’m not coming in’, they literally dragged me, I’m going ‘I’m not coming in’.
“And then in the end they go, ‘come on please, just come in’. So I walked in and they’re like ‘he’s here!’
“And Stones went ‘oh f*** off, no, no’. I went ‘you f***ing s***bag you’.
“I said ‘you’ve let a pub player f***ing get in your head that much? Are you alright, you’?
‘He wouldn’t speak to me’
“All the money you’ve got, you’re at Man City and you’ve let that affect you?
“He wouldn’t even look at me. I said ‘can I have your shirt?’ He said ‘No, f***off.’
“He wouldn’t speak to me.”
Pope was a prolific goalscorer for Port Vale, netting more than 100 times for the club across three spells.
He also played for Rotherham, Bury and Crewe during his EFL career.
Since leaving Port Vale in 2021 he has dropped into non-league, recently leaving Hanley Town to join Kidsgrove Athletic.
