AFP
Manchester, Sept 8: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and his Manchester City adversary Pep Guardiola rekindle a rivalry 20 years in the making in this weekend’s hotly anticipated Manchester derby.
Friends who became foes, Mourinho and Guardiola represent opposite ends of football’s ideological spectrum and their ongoing grudge match has shaped the game’s recent history.
It is three years since they last shared a touchline and Saturday’s clash at Old Trafford marks the resumption of a duel that could determine the outcome of the Premier League title race.
“He (Guardiola) left Barcelona for a number of reasons,” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher wrote in the ‘Daily Mail’. “But one of them, I’m sure, is the continual baiting to which he was subjected by Mourinho in the media. It was inevitable, at some point, that theme will return. Guardiola must be thinking: ‘Oh no, not him again’.”
Though renowned for their different demeanours, the pragmatic Mourinho, 53, and the idealistic Guardiola, 45, have both shown a capacity for ruthlessness in their early days in Manchester.
Mourinho has sidelined experienced German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, while Guardiola’s benching of Joe Hart forced the popular goalkeeper to leave City for Torino.
Both men have also delivered impressive initial results, leaving their clubs neck-and-neck on nine points – along with Chelsea – after the first three games of the season.
The pair last met in 2013 when Guardiola’s Bayern Munich edged Mourinho’s Chelsea on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup.
Ahead of the current campaign, both managers were at pains to play down the significance of their rivalry.
“In the Premier League, if I focus on him and Manchester City, and he on me and Manchester United, someone else is going to win the league,” Mourinho said a couple of days back. Guardiola said managers like Mourinho pushed him to ‘reach another level’.
But the gloves will come off when the referee’s whistle sounds at Old Trafford Saturday, if not in the pair’s pre-match press conferences the day before.
Manchester is about to find out whether the city is big enough for both of them.