José Mourinho would rather eat lunch than discuss his rivalry with Pep Guardiola, with Manchester United’s manager claiming the real fight on Saturday is Kell Brook’s middleweight world championship bout with Gennady Golovkin.
Mourinho’s United host Guardiola’s City in the 172nd Manchester derby for Saturday’s early match. The Portuguese and Catalan have endured a fractious relationship yet Mourinho is not minded to say anything that might inflame this. He said: “What do you want me to say? You want me to give you headlines and I want to go for lunch. We have different objectives. I have nothing to say to you. You want stories but I don’t have stories for you. We met in the Premier League meeting [recently]. You want a fight but the fight is Brook against the Russian guy, it’s not us. It’s not me against him, it’s Man United against Man City.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been vocal about his disregard for Guardiola, having worked under him at Barcelona, with one instance being in the Swede’s book. “I never read Zlatan saying Guardiola is a bad manager,” Mourinho said. “It is normal between managers and players you have more connections with some than others. But that doesn’t mean you hate each other. I read something that Eden [Hazard] is in love with Antonio [Conte, at Chelsea] and was not in love with me. But he’s not my enemy – it’s feeling, that’s fine, it’s his feeling.
“I’m fine. I’m happy for him. So Zlatan didn’t have the best period of his career [at Barça] but that’s fine. They are not enemies, we are not expecting Zlatan tomorrow to score a goal, run to Pep, sliding on his knees; that’s not going to happen. You want stories, but I think the story is, I hope, great 90 minutes between two teams full of good players in a mythical stadium, with how many billions watching the game all over the countries. That’s the story.”
Asked if he may share a post-match drink with Guardiola, Mourinho said: “That’s important? I don’t think it’s important. If we do we don’t have to tell you. If we don’t do, it is because we have other things to do – it’s not because of that that we have a problem. Because we don’t have a problem.”
Mourinho once gave Sir Alex Ferguson a bottle of wine when the Scot was in charge of United. “Because I know he loves it. And football changes in the past years,” said Mourinho. “In this moment you finish the game and we managers, we have more work to do than the 90 minutes of the game. I prefer the 90 minutes of the game than the 90 minutes with you. I have to go to every television, I have to go here and there, after the game I have to go to one of the club’s sponsors.”
Mourinho has faced Guardiola’s sides 16 times, yet he claimed this knowledge would not aid him on Saturday. “It cannot help that I have played him before,” he said. “Barcelona is Barcelona, Real Madrid is Real Madrid. Inter is Inter. Premier League is Premier League. Man City is Man City, Man United is Man United. The players are different, the stadiums are different, the competition is different so it is difficult to make comparison.”
Mourinho stated nothing much would occur between them during the match. “No. On the touchline probably nothing,” he said. “But inside, in the dressing rooms, fine – I met him a couple of weeks ago. You want stories but I don’t have them.”
City are the early leaders with nine points from their first three games and United trail them on goal difference. Despite Mourinho’s Premier League title-winning sides traditionally starting fast he does not view Saturday’s result as being pivotal. “There are many ways to win titles,” he said. “Man United last season had very good results against the top teams and finish fifth. So sometimes it is not between the title contenders that you win or lose the title. Sometimes you win it by winning matches and maths and matches in the marathon between August to May.
“But obviously when you play against a title contender the team that wins three points stops the other. So it is better to do that, or when you get a draw you accept you didn’t lose points to a direct contender. This is too early – we are in the [second] week of September.”
