Pep Guardiola insists his reference to Jose Mourinho was a ‘joke’
Pep Guardiola has hit back at Jose Mourinho after the former Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham manager suggested that Man City have not won their Premier League titles ‘fairly and cleanly’.
The new war of words between the two old rivals has come after Guardiola held up six fingers to the Liverpool fans during City’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield last Sunday.
Guardiola was reminded that Mourinho made a similar gesture to show how many Premier League titles he had won just two months before he was sacked by United in 2018.
When asked about his gesture and the comparisons to Mourinho, Guardiola said: ‘I hope not in my case. Maybe in the end we are quite similar, like Jose. But he won three, I won six.’
Mourinho then hit back at Guardiola by highlighting the 115 charges that City are contesting with the Premier League over alleged breaches of financial rules.
Jose Mourinho flashed three fingers at Chelsea fans two months before he was sacked by Manchester United in 2018 (AP)
‘He won six trophies and I won three, but I won fairly and cleanly,’ Mourinho said.
‘If I lost, I want to congratulate my opponent because he was better than me. I don’t want to win by dealing with 150 lawsuits.’
When asked about Mourinho’s comments, Guardiola said on Friday: ‘It was a joke. But he’s another one in the huge list that they want the team being in, I don’t know, League One or the Conference.
Pep Guardiola held up six fingers to Liverpool fans Manchester City’s defeat at Anfield (Getty)
‘I would say to Jose the same – we are innocent until proven guilty, and after that we will see what happens. It is what it is. It was completely a joke.
‘I think both with our teams, him with Chelsea, myself with Man City, we can sit at the table with Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, right? For the many, many titles we won.
‘If I have offended him I’m so sorry, but it was a joke. The fact is he has three and I have six. This is a fact. But the intention was completely fine.
‘It is another one from the huge list in this country and more around the world that want us at the bottom.
‘It’s okay, it’s fine. I’ve said many times wait for the sentence and everyone, especially in democracy, is innocent until proven guilty. Right? So we’ll wait, and after we’ll see.’
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