Sure, Jose. We believe you.
Jose Mourinho claims he doesn’t plan on arguing with Pep Guardiola next season. The two will go head to head again as managers of Manchester United and Manchester City respectively, and most are expecting tensions to boil over.
Mourinho and Guardiola in Manchester has all the ingredients to be a sequel to their spell in La Liga between 2010 and 2012. Real Madrid manager Mourinho mercilessly chipped away at Guardiola, engaging in exhausting mental warfare and mind games to the extent that poor Pep lost his hair and walked away from the Barcelona team he built into one of the greatest club sides ever.
Despite the pair now being set to work in the same city, Mourinho claims he won’t be engaging in arguments with his rival next season
This gracious decision has nothing to do with the Portuguese having a change of heart on Guardiola, but rather because of United’s numerous title rivals.
“[What has happened in the past] does not allow me to be innocent. For two years Pep and I were in a league where the champion would be either me or him, Real Madrid or Barcelona,” Mourinho told football coaching students in Lisbon.
“In a situation like this, individual fights make sense because they can influence things. [But] 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.”
So Mourinho sees nothing wrong with engaging in mindgames with opposing managers, as long as they are direct rivals.
If City and United are both in contention for the Premier League title next April, something tells us Jose may revise his stance.
