Pep Guardiola was quick to downplay the soon-to-be-renewed rivalry with Jose Mourinho, insisting that such encounters have helped take his coaching to a new level.
Jose and Pep endured a fierce relationship during their time at Barcelona and Real Madrid, with Barca always the subject of regular Mourinho.
When confronted with the question, Manchester United’s new manager, Jose Mourinho played down the significance of both men’s arrival in Manchester, and Guardiola was equally conciliatory when he faced the inevitable question at his first City press conference.
“I think Jose put it pretty well in his press conference,” City’s new head coach said. “It’s not about him or about me.
“We played many times against each other, and I can only say as a coach that the big coaches – and Jose is of course one of them – help me to reach another level as a coach.
“My experience against him and against, for example, Jurgen Klopp or Thomas Tuchel at Borussia Dortmund and a lot of managers in England and Spain – it made me better.
“All managers in the world want to win and here they’re going to try to win as well.”
