Jose and Pep are set for their very own Rumble
WHEN Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola face the media ahead of Saturday’s Manchester derby, both will say that the game is all about the players, not them.
Yeah, right! They are not kidding anyone. It will be about super- egos and a history of animosity. This is personal.
In their adverts, Sky Sports are linking Jose v Pep to their coverage of the fight between Gennady Golovkin and Kell Brook later in the day.
Two grudge matches in the space of 12 hours – and both equally likely to produce aggressive confrontation.
At Old Trafford at lunchtime, the two most successful coaches in the world will clash for the 17th time.
It’s a meeting that’s been eagerly anticipated ever since they both landed in Manchester in the summer.
In the red corner, spending £ 149m, winner of 23 trophies in four different countries – Jose “The Special One” Mourinho!
In the blue corner, spending £ 174m, winner of 21 trophies and reigning headto-head champion – Pep “The Hart-Breaker” Guardiola!
The pair worked together at Barcelona between 1996 and 2000, when Mourinho was a coach and Guardiola was a player.
Since then, though, any cordiality there may have been has been replaced by bitter verbal spats, simmering touchline rows and wild conspiracy theories.
By rights, their first meeting as Manchester managers should have been in the Beijing Bird’s Nest Stadium in July, but rainstorms postponed the fixture.
As a result, the anticipation over next Saturday has run unbridled.
Add in the £323m the two clubs spent between them over the summer to win the title to the maximum points they’ve both taken from the first three matches, and you have a perfect storm.
Mourinho and Guardiola first clashed as coaches when Inter Milan played Barca four times during the 2009- 10 Champions League campaign.
Guardiola took four points from the group games, but Mourinho won the semi-final on aggregate and went on to lift the trophy.
The relationship turned ugly when the Portuguese was appointed Real Madrid boss and for two years he was constantly
Cordiality has been replaced by bitter verbal spats and simmering touchline rows
battling Guardiola for domestic and European honours.
A 5- 0 defeat in his first El Clasico didn’t go down too well with The Special One.
Every subsequent meeting was bookended by both managers trading personal insults.
At one point Mourinho had a player sent off against a Guardiola side in five consecutive games.
After Barcelona beat Real in the Champions League semi, Mourinho said: “One day, I would like Josep Guardiola to win this competition properly,” as he spoke darkly about UEFA-Barca subterfuge.
In their next clash, Mourinho poked Guardiola’s assistant Tito Vilanova in the eye during a touchline melee.
The last time they met was in 2013 in the UEFA Super Cup. Mourinho was back at Chelsea and Guardiola was newly in at Bayern Munich. Chelsea had Ramires sent off, the Germans won on penalties and Mourinho said: “Every time I play Pep, I end up with 10 men. “It must be some sort of UEFA rule.” Absence doesn’t seem to have made hearts grow any fonder.
Questions about their rivalry have been inevitable since they were installed at clubs four miles apart.
Guardiola diplomatically fends off inquiries, while to Mourinho, Pep is the football equivalent of Lord Voldemort – he who must not be named.
Both have had enough on their plates over the last two months to have been able to largely ignore the man across the city – until this week.
They’ve made impressive, if not unexpected, starts, given the resources they’ve had.
It would be a major surprise if both aren’t in the mix in May.
Mourinho needs to prove he’s still a serial winner and that his meltdown at Chelsea was a blip, not a trend.
He has made United look more like Sir Alex Ferguson’s team in three games than they ever did in three years under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal.
Having been head-hunted for so long by City’s former Barca executives, a great deal is expected of Guardiola.
He has been very definitive in what he requires from his players, hence the surprise departure of England No.1 Joe Hart and the Deadline Day loan disposal of £90m worth of recent buys.
Having had a relatively easy run of opening fixtures, the derby is the first real test for both managers. They can’t both pass. Seconds out, Round One.