A Pep Guardiola mural near City's Etihad stadium was defaced with 'MUFC' graffiti hours after being unveiled. It was 'mindlessly vandalised' following three days of hard work by artist Mr Meana.
"As street artists, we're used to our work being temporary, but we feel so bad for the fans," he said as he set about fixing the mural on the side of a Beswick house in the shadow of the Blues' home.
The artwork, created by Murwalls, saw people queuing on Ashton New Road to see it. However, around 10.30pm last night (Wednesday) black and white paint was thrown onto the wall, with 'MUFC' sprayed with green paint.
Lesley Kelly, 63, who owns the house on Viking Street said: "It just makes me so angry. It's vandalism.
READ MORE: Huge mural of Pep Guardiola unveiled
"My brothers are United fans, but they thought it was amazing. Everyone can appreciate what Pep has done and that this is a City area right next to the stadium. It's just so childish and mindless to do this.
"It looks like an adult's done this given how high the paint was thrown. What sort of message does this send to kids? I was so happy when this was done, it's beautiful, but now I'm just so angry.
"I wanted to use it to do work with MIND, the mental health charity, and to do a charity collection outside on derby day, it's just so sad. People always talk of putting things in place to brighten up the area which this definitely did but then this happens, it's so frustrating."
MurWalls, founded by its CEO Mark Silver in 2019, brings together some of the country's best street artists and works with a number of different brands and organisations to create bespoke pieces. They have been behind a number of high-profile football-related murals including the painting of Sergio Aguero in the Northern Quarter unveiled shortly before his departure from the club in 2021, and a number of murals of Liverpool players and legends near Anfield.
Mr Meana received a message just after midnight last night notifying him the work had been vandalised. He was hard at work this morning (Thursday) fixing the mural as best he could. "It was just so frustrating when I received that message just hours after finishing it.
"We'd had a lot of people walk past and take pictures while we were making it. It won't be possible to get it exactly how it was when we originally finished it but I'm doing the best I can.
"It's a work that meant a lot to the fans and Leslie especially. All football fans can appreciate what he (Pep) has done, he's a legend of not just this club but the sport.
"It brought a smile to people walking past and is a great thing to have for matchdays. It's just childish d******s that would want to do this, they're not real football fans."
Mr Meana was finishing the hardest bits of detail around Pep's beard this morning to bring it back to former glory. "We didn't want the people or person who did this to think it would stop us, we really wanted to make it right."
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