Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has attempted to diffuse the fresh outbreak of simmering animosity with long-time rival Jose Mourinho after the pair exchanged verbal barbs via the media this week.
Guardiola inadvertently prompted comparisons with Mourinho after raising six fingers to account for his half-dozen Premier League titles in City's 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last weekend. The Portuguese coach committed a similar act during one of his finals Manchester United press conferences, showing three fingers while demanding “respect” from a group of perplexed journalists in 2018.
When this sequence of events was reported to Guardiola this week he acknowledged the similarities before cheekily pointing out: “However, he's won three Premier Leagues, and I've won six. So it's not quite the same, is it ?”
Mourinho, currently in charge of Turkish side Fenerbahce, soon retaliated. The legendary speaker referred to the 115 charges brought against City in the Premier League for alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play rules. “I want to win, but I want to win cleanly and fairly,” Mourinho said. “If I can’t win cleanly, I’d rather lose.”
The two legendary coaches were once colleagues of Barcelonaforming a strong working relationship after Mourinho joined the club as assistant to Sir Bobby Robson while Guardiola captained the team. However, the two men have since been engaged in a series of increasingly toxic battles after Guardiola was named Barcelona head coach in 2008 in place 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 “were a joke”.
“If I offended him [Mourinho]I'm really sorry,” the City boss explained. “But it was a joke. The fact is that he has three and I have six, that's a fact. But the intention was completely good.”
On the theme of Citythe accusations, which were also joked by Liverpool manager Arne Slot recently added Guardiola: “It's another to add to the huge list of people who want the team in League One or the Conference. But we're innocent until proven guilty, so after that we'll see what that's happening. But it is what it is, it was completely a joke.”
The serial champion concluded with a touch 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 have won. And I'm sure that sooner or later they will congratulate us.”
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