Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has tried to diffuse the fresh burst of bubbling animosity with his long-time rival Jose Mourinho after the pair exchanged verbal barbs via the media this week.
Guardiola inadvertently prompted comparisons to Mourinho after holding up six fingers to represent his half-dozen Premier League titles during City’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last weekend. The Portuguese coach had performed a similar act during one of his final Manchester United press conferences, flashing three fingers while demanding “respect” from a bemused gaggle of journalists back in 2018.
When that sequence of events was pointed out to Guardiola this week, he acknowledged the similarities before cheekily pointing out: “However, he won three Premier Leagues, and I’ve won six. So, it’s not quite the same, is it?”
Mourinho, currently in charge of Turkish outfit Fenerbahce, soon fired back. The legendary orator referenced the 115 Premier League charges levelled against City for alleged breaches of financial fair play regulations. “I want to win, but I want to win cleanly and fairly,” Mourinho sniped. “If I cannot win cleanly, I prefer to lose.”
The two legendary coaches were once colleagues at Barcelona, forming a strong working relationship after Mourinho joined the club as Sir Bobby Robson’s assistant while Guardiola was the team’s captain. However, the pair have since been locked in a series of increasingly toxic battles after Guardiola was appointed as Barcelona head coach in 2008 instead of Mourinho.
In a feeble attempt to downplay this latest war of words, Guardiola told the assembled media that his comments about Mourinho’s trophy count “was a joke”.
“If I have offended him [Mourinho], I am so sorry,” City’s boss explained. “But it was a joke. The fact is he has three and I have six, it is a fact. But the intention was completely fine.”
On the topic of City’s charges, which were also joked about by Liverpool manager Arne Slot recently, Guardiola added: “It’s another one to add to the huge list of people who want the team in League One or the Conference. But we are innocent until proven guilty, so after that we will see what happens. But it is what it is, it was completely a joke.”
The serial champion concluded with a flourish of flattery. “I think both of us – him [Mourinho] with Chelsea, myself with City – we can sit at the table with Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, right?”, Guardiola said. “For the many titles we won. And I’m pretty sure sooner or later they will congratulate us.”
