Pep Guardiola has dismissed comments from Jose Mourinho surrounding Manchester City’s ongoing legal battle with the Premier League.
After Guardiola held up six fingers during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield on Sunday, he was reminded of the three-finger salute Mourinho made as Manchester United’s manager after a defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur in August 2018.
When Guardiola was asked earlier this week if that would see a similar trajectory for his career, he said he “hoped not in my case” before saying that he has won six Premier League titles in comparison to Mourinho’s three.
That prompted the now Fenerbahce boss to respond by alluding to City’s battle with the Premier League in the context of Guardiola’s successes. “I want to win but I want to win cleanly and fairly,” Mourinho said. “If I cannot win fairly, I prefer to lose.
“Guardiola won six trophies and I won three, but I won fairly and cleanly. If I lost, I want to congratulate my opponent for being better than me. I don’t want to win by dealing with 150 lawsuits.”
The club have always denied any wrongdoing over a series of alleged breaches of financial rules and have defended their position in a lengthy hearing with the league in recent months.
“It was a joke,” Guardiola said in response at his press conference ahead of the club’s trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
“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 Portuguese developed a strong rivalry with Guardiola when the two were in charge of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, before they renewed acquaintances in the Premier League with Mourinho having spells at Manchester United and Chelsea while Guardiola was at City.
Mourinho’s Premier League titles were all won at Chelsea under the ownership of Roman Abramovich in 2005, 2006 and 2015.
“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.”
It was the second time in recent days that the Spaniard has had to play down comments from opposing managers, after Liverpool’s Arne Slot referred to the legal case earlier in the week. Again, Guardiola was quick to quash any malicious intent.
“If I have offended him (Mourinho), I am so sorry. 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.
“It’s another one to the huge list of people around the world who want us at the bottom. It’s ok, it’s fine. What I’ve said many times, we wait for the sentence, and everyone in a democracy is innocent until proven guilty, right? So we wait, and after we see.”
City will be hoping to make it two wins from two in the Premier League on Saturday, after a seven-game winless run came to an end against Nottingham Forest in midweek. Guardiola singled out Jack Grealish for praise after his performance in central midfield, and suggested that the 29-year-old will continue in that role this weekend.
“He has attributes to play there. Maybe it was my mistake to play him as a winger. He can adapt perfectly in both positions.”
(Top image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
