Jose Mourinho has promised he won’t let his rivalry with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola get the better of him now that he has taken charge of rivals United.
The Special One told The Guardian that he can’t focus on his old enemy too much because it will allow another team to pip both of them to the league.
However hard Mourinho wants to ignore Guardiola, though, it’s impossible not to make some interesting comparisons.
For those wondering who’s the better manager, it’s almost too close to call.
According to Sky Sports, Mourinho has beaten Guardiola just three times, while the incoming City boss has got the better of him on seven occasions.
And while Mourinho has 22 trophies to his name, compared with Pep’s 21, he has had considerably more time to amass that record. He is 53, while Guardiola is just 45.
Of course, on both sides, many of those trophies include fairly meaningless Super Cups. Where it counts, though, in the league, it is almost impossible to pull them apart.
Guardiola has won the title six times in his managerial career, three times with Barcelona, and three with Bayern.
Mourinho, meanwhile, has won the Premier League three times, Serie A twice, La Liga once, and the Portuguese league twice.
United will not be in the Champions League next season, but if their new boss can get them back in it for the following campaign, he has a fairly impressive record, having won it twice – which is incidentally the same amount as Guardiola.
One of those achievements was with Porto, though, which arguably sets him apart from Guardiola, who achieved both of his triumphs with a team that included Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta.
He has failed to win the Champions League with Bayern Munich despite their dominance of the Bundesliga, though the same could be said of Mourinho at Chelsea.
In his days at Barca, it would have to be said that Guardiola edged it because of his beautiful brand of football, particularly when opposed to Mourinho’s relatively pedestrian style.
Now, though, he has reportedly abandoned ‘tiki-taka’ and therein lies the problem.
He can now only be judged on his results in England, and if United have the season they are expected to, he is in danger of falling into Mourinho’s shadow unless he pulls off something special with City.
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