Mourinho - Guardiola: Undercurrents in Manchester

From El Clasico to the Manchester derby, the venue may change but the match between Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho promises to be as exciting as ever.

Press conference room at Bernabeu stadium, Champions League semi-final 2011, Pep Guardiola threw away his usual politeness. And he let out his first swear words since entering the coaching world: "In this room, he is a fucking coach, a fucking master. And I don't want to compare myself with him for a second, a minute." The guy mentioned here is Jose Mourinho.

That was when the tension in El Clasico reached its peak. Mourinho, as usual, used all his psychological warfare skills to make his opponent angry. And Guardiola was indeed angry. In his life, Guardiola had probably never hated anyone so much. When they met at the Ballon d'Or Gala or a conference organized by FIFA, Mourinho would approach Guardiola and Guardiola would walk away, not wanting to see the face of the person he hated.

In his book about the history of El Clasico, famous journalist Sid Lowe has a whole chapter titled: "The Ball Boy and the Interpreter". The first subject is Guardiola and the other is Mourinho. They knew each other before, when Guardiola was playing midfielder, and Mourinho was a language assistant for Louis van Gaal at Barcelona. People still keep many pictures of the two, sitting next to each other, discussing something. It can be said that they used to be friends.

The close relationship between Guardiola and Mourinho during their time together at Barca did not help the relationship between Guardiola and Mourinho later on, as they constantly clashed in their coaching positions. Photo: Marca.

But that friendship ended when Barcelona chose to appoint an unknown Guardiola rather than a Mourinho at the peak of his fame. From then on, Mourinho hated Barca. After helping Inter Milan knock Barca out of the Champions League, Mourinho returned to Real Madrid and made it his mission to defeat Guardiola.

El Clasico matches, under the guidance of Guardiola and Mourinho, became extremely tense. Real used violence to suppress, Barca showed off their superb acting skills. Both sides rushed at each other with revenge attacks. Many of the players on both sides were teammates on the national team, but they did not show each other any respect. Turning the match into a battlefield was Mourinho's motto.

They met again after leaving Spain, when Chelsea faced Bayern in the 2013 European Super Cup. But now, the two arch-enemies will be in the same city. The drama promises to be even more intense. Among the seven sufferings of humanity listed by Buddhism, there are"Oan tăng hội quả" means having to face people you hate. Now Guardiola and Mourinho have to meet at least twice a season, not to mention the possibility of facing each other in two domestic Cups is not small. Manchester suddenly becomes smaller for two famous figures.

Just as Real Madrid abandoned tradition to appoint Mourinho seven years ago, Man Utd also hired Mourinho with one purpose: to stop Guardiola's Man City. History has changed dramatically like that. "The noisy neighbor", as Sir Alex Ferguson said years ago, is now the team that forces the opponent to change. Man Utd is in a different situation, although their fans are still very large, very fond of the club. Only now, they are divided into two fronts. One sees Mourinho as the savior after three years of failure. The other has always hated Mourinho, but now has to support him.

Mourinho and Guardiola once hated each other so much that they shook hands without even looking at each other.

The confrontation between Mourinho and Guardiola is worth waiting for because they are so different.Both love Barca, but Barca considers Guardiola "family" and Mourinho "outsider". Barca respects those who have grown up at the club and understand the club's values. Ferran Soriano, now CEO of Man City, is a friend of Guardiola. He was one of the people who advised Joan Laporta to dismiss Mourinho and appoint Guardiola in the past. And he was also the one who planned the route to bring Guardiola to Man City.

Tactically, Guardiola takes ball control as his life. Mourinho likes the less ball, because his forte is counter-attacking. Guardiola hates holding press conferences, Mourinho finds them extremely comfortable, even the match with this coach starts from the moment he enters the conference room. Psychological warfare is Mourinho's specialty, while Guardiola is not a good debater.

In terms of personality, the two are also different. Zlatan Ibrahimovic wrote in his autobiography: "Mourinho lights up a room, Guardiola turns off the lights and leaves everyone in the dark." Mourinho talks to everyone, Guardiola avoids those with strong personalities that he considers "unsuitable", from Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o to Zlatan. Guardiola turns the club into a school, he eliminates personalities. Mourinho turns his players into warriors.

These two personalities, placed in two opposing environments like water and fire in Manchester, will make the battle between them even more heated. Guardiola is a very successful coach in the history of Barca. Of the 18 titles that could have been achieved there, Guardiola only lost four, and three of them were against Mourinho.

Next season, Manchester will be in turmoil because of the rivalry between the two coaches. Photo: Telegraph.

During their two years working together in Spain, Guardiola lost a lot of his hair, while Mourinho's hair sometimes turned white. These are the people who, when they meet, will use all their strength to make the opponent fail. And next season, fans of the Premier League in general, and fans of the two Manchester teams in particular, will witness that must-see battle.

Manchester is waiting for the day of uprising!

According to VNE