Monday 16 February 2015 09:31, UK
Gus Poyet launched a bizarre attack on the media and referee Kevin Friend after Sunderland's 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Bradford.
In a spiky post-match press conference on Sunday, the Sunderland manager took issue with the reporting of his comments about the club's fans and also criticised the match officials for failing to award Sunderland a first-half penalty after Rory McArdle tackled Steven Fletcher in the box.
After the midweek Premier League defeat to QPR, Poyet insisted he wouldn't be "basing [his] stay at the club around the supporters", but he did not like how those quotes were portrayed.
He told assembled journalists at Valley Parade: "The problem is you, not me.
I'm not going to get involved any more. If we close Sunderland - if we put a China Wall around the city - it would be fantastic.
"I'm not going to get involved any more. If we close Sunderland - if we put a China Wall around the city - it would be fantastic.
"Now when we let you in and you get out and say what you want, we've got a problem. I invite every Sunderland fan and people around the club not to listen to any one of you - only to me."
Poyet even took issue with a question about the absence of Jermain Defoe, responding: "You need to know too many things and we try not to give you too much information.
"He was injured, he got a little problem on his calf and we don't know how long it is going to take."
Poyet's mood was not improved by his reaction to the performance of referee Friend, but he did pay tribute to Bradford for reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals through an early John O'Shea own goal and Jon Stead's second-half strike.
He added: "We tried our best and I think no regrets because everybody put in their best effort and their best ability to play under the circumstances.
"They found a goal from an action that can happen in any game. Then when we started understanding a way to hurt Bradford, at that moment we needed to score and the referee needed to do his job and he didn't.
"I'm not going to complain about the pitch - we didn't lose because of the pitch.
"Bradford won at Stamford Bridge on a great pitch and today they played here and beat us on this pitch so you need to give plenty of credit to what they do."
