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Thursday, September 8, 2016

Pep Guardiola versus Jose Mourinho - The Intense Rivalry





The moment has almost arrived. Forget Batman versus Superman - this is the highly anticipated blockbuster of the year: Pep Guardiola versus Jose Mourinho. Manchester City versus Manchester United. Saturday's tie could be one of the most hyped-up Premier League games of all time.
Guardiola and Mourinho were relatively close when they were both at the Nou Camp, but being matched up later in opposing dugouts for games between Barcelona and Real Madrid shattered any semblance of that. Add the Champions League semi-final during Mourinho's time at Inter Milan, toss in an eye-poke and the Manchester derby reads more like a guide to creating fireworks than a football match.
Ahead of the big game,Sportsmail has assembled the best quotes from the two friends turned foes.

Mourinho on Guardiola
Mourinho's analysis of the infamous semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge...
‘A year ago Chelsea were crying and Barca were laughing with the referee. They laughed because he denied my Chelsea boys their rightful place.’
After Guardiola complained about Pedro’s goal being ruled out for offside in a Copa del Rey tie...
‘Up until now there was a very small group of coaches who didn't talk about referees and a larger group who did. Now, with Pep's comments, we have started a new era with a third group, featuring only one person, a man who criticises [the referee] when he makes good decisions. This is completely new to me.’


After Barca beat Real 2-0 in the Champions League semi-final in 2011...
‘One day, I would like Josep Guardiola to win this competition properly. If I tell UEFA what I really think and feel, my career would end now. Instead I will just ask a question to which I hope one day to get a response: Why? Why Ovrebo? Why Busacca? Why De Bleeckere? Why Stark? Why? Because every semi-final the same things happen. We are talking about an absolutely fantastic football team, so why do they need that? Why?
'Why does a team as good as they are need something [extra] that is so obvious that everyone sees it? I don't know if it is the UNICEF sponsorship or if it is because they are nice guys. I don't understand. They have power and we have no chance. All I can do is leave that question here in the air and hope that one day I will get the response. They have to get to the final, and they'll get there, full stop. Josep Guardiola is a fantastic coach. But I have won two Champions Leagues and he has won [only] one Champions League - and that is one that would embarrass me.
'I would be ashamed to have won it with the scandal of Stamford Bridge. If he wins it this year, it will be with the scandal of the Bernabeu. Deep down, if they are good people, it cannot taste right for them. I hope one day Guardiola has the chance of winning a brilliant, clean championship with no scandal.’


Mourinho on Barcelona's playing style after the Spanish Super Cup final in 2011...
‘I'm not going to say we're happy because we didn't win the Spanish Super Cup, that would be hypocritical of me. But we intended to play like men and not fall on the ground at the slightest touch. I have been taught to play like a man and not to fall first.’
His thoughts on Guardiola's one-year sabbatical...
‘It's his life, but for me it's unthinkable to take a sabbatical. He is younger than me, but I'm not tired.’
After Chelsea's match with Bayern Munich in the UEFA Super Cup final...
‘The best team clearly lost. They just scored one more penalty.’


On refereeing standards...
‘Every time I play Pep I end up with 10 men. It must be some sort of UEFA rule.’
Mourinho's views on their similarities...
‘There are people, much more intelligent than me, who manage to sell an image of themselves, completely different to mine, but deep down they are the same as me.'
Discussing a photo of the two from their time together at Barcelona...
‘Yes, I still have a photo of that embrace. We were close.’


Why the rivalry in the Premier League will be less intense...
‘My experience does not allow me to be naive. I was in Spain for two years, where the champion would be me or him. There, individual battles make more sense because they can affect the outcome (of the title race).
'If in the Premier League I were to focus on him and Manchester City and he were to focus on me and Manchester United, someone else would be champion. The level of the Premier League is going to get better with the players and coaches who will come.
'Four champions in four years shows how competitive it is, and also says a lot about the television rights and its distribution, which will allow the growth of the league and all its teams. It is different to other leagues where the sharks will always be sharks.’

Guardiola on Mourinho
Why Guardiola chose to keep calm...
‘I know Mourinho and he's trying to provoke me into a reaction, but it won't work. I'm not going to react. I'm not going to answer back. Only when I think the time is right.’
The time was right ahead of the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Real Madrid in 2011...
‘As senor Mourinho has called me Pep, I'm going to call him Jose. Tomorrow at 8.45pm we will face each other on the pitch. Off the pitch he's won. He's been winning off the pitch all season. Let them give him a Champions League for it so he can enjoy it and take it home.
'In the press room he is 'el p*** jefe' (the ******* boss) and the one who knows more than everyone else. I would only remind him that we were together, he and I, for four years. He knows me and I know him. That's enough for me.
'If he prefers to value the views of the journalist friends who take their information in a drip feed from Florentino PĂ©rez more than the relationship we had for four years then that's his choice. I try to learn from Jose on the pitch, but I prefer to learn as little as possible from him off the pitch.’


On their time under Bobby Robson...
‘We would exchange ideas. It was a friendship, well a working relationship.’.
Discussing the state of their relationship...
‘With Mourinho, so many things happened. So many things.’
After it was suggested to Guardiola that the two managers are quite similar...
‘If that's true, I will have to revise my behaviour.’


Following Guardiola's appointment as City manager...
'I think Jose said it pretty well. It's not about him or me. Whatever you saw from the distance doesn’t matter, we played many times against each other and I know him well.’
Ahead of the new Premier League season...
'I don't see it as a question. He wants to win, I want to win, we know each other pretty well from before at Barcelona.'


Reference: Dailymail

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