Pep Guardiola responds in four words to José Mourinho's inquiry and has a tense confrontation with the journalist
Pep Guardiola participated in a heated pre-match press conference on Friday.
He city of manchester The boss issued a response to Jose Mourinho before your team's trip to Crystal Palace this weekend.
Their back and forth arises from Guardiola raising six fingers for each of his titles against Liverpool on Sunday.
He then said he hoped he wouldn't suffer the same fate as Mourinho after he did the same shortly before being sacked by manchester united.
However, The three-time Premier League winner responded saying: “Guardiola said something yesterday.
“He won six trophies and I won three, but I won fair and square.
“If I lose, I want to congratulate my opponent because he was better than me. I don't want to win by dealing with 150 lawsuits.”
Guardiola was asked about the comments on Friday while speaking ahead of the trip to Selhurst Park.
“It was a joke,” he said, laughing, before repeating more seriously: “It was a joke.
“It's another one for the huge list in this country and around the world who want us in League One, they want us at the end.
“But I would tell José the same thing I tell everyone else: we are innocent until proven guilty. Then we'll see what happens, but it is what it is.
“So it was completely a joke.
4
“I think that with our two teams, he with Chelsea, me with Man City, we can sit at the table with Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, right?
“For the many titles we won. And I'm pretty sure that sooner or later they will congratulate us.
“Arne Slot's joke was his business, not mine. Speaking of what I said, if I have offended him (Mourinho), I am very sorry… but it was a joke.
“The fact is, he was three, I was six. So this is a fact.
“But the intention was completely good.”
A journalist then attempted to ask Guardiola another question, seemingly continuing the conversation about this exchange with Mourinho, but was shut down by the City boss.
4
The journalist began: “Hello, Pep. You only talk about power, you and Mourinho being able to sit down…”
But Guardiola interrupted: “No, listen, stop it.
“Don't ask me that. I respond quite well. I answer the question about José, he is no longer here.”
The journalist tried again: “What I was going to say…”
But, again, Guardiola intervened: “Don't try it.”
The journalist was then allowed to ask his question, which did not refer to Mourinho at all, but whether he imagined rivaling Ferguson and Wenger for the trophies won when he first arrived at Manchester City in 2016.
“No, no, no,” replied the Spaniard.
“I remember a lot of people saying: 'Yes, he wins', you know, because now it's Barça with Leo Messi and the others, and 'He has to prove himself in England.'
“OK. We did it.”
The manager was also asked if he has had many conversations with any of the legendary Premier League managers since taking over at City, and admitted that he has a good relationship with both Ferguson and Wenger, whom he called a “gentleman.” .
“With Sir Alex, some (conversations),” he said.
“Now, maybe not in a long period, but in the first year it was a lot. We were at charity events together and it was good.
4
“With Arsene, since he retired, he has been incredible. But Arsene has been a gentleman for many, many years. The last time he came here we had a great chat.
“Now he has this role within FIFA and it is important that these figures are in world football.
“Of course, they both had incredible success at United and Arsenal, José at Chelsea and I would say us here at City.
“But when I'm sitting with them we don't talk about how good we were or how many titles we've won; These kinds of things are ridiculous.
“We talk about life, about this experience. Sir Alex asked me what it is like in England, I asked him about his experience in how many years at United, and with Arsene I asked him about the impact of moving from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium.
“We don't talk about results or the trophies we win or lose; when you lift the trophy, it's nice, you just have another number.”
