Jose's pop at Pep

City and us weren't all that different, challenge-wise. Ok, they scraped into the CL and we didn't, but they had an ageing squad at the end of its prime and we had a much better mix of youth and experience plus a gaggle of promising youngsters to fill any cracks. Maybe City were the slightly easier job but imagine De Bruyne had started this season really badly because he and Pep didn't click; they could easily be struggling. A number of this string of PL victories they've put together have been pretty touch-and-go.

Credit where it's due, he's doing really well so far. Mourinho's doing pretty well too. Remember he has to follow a fifth place finish and Van Gaal-ball, whereas City weren't all that bad under Pellegrini, and it was more a case of worrying about their future than particular problems with their present.
 
Fitchett said:
Loved reading Jose's comments in his match day programme article today, a clear dig against Guardiola.

"Some are happy to choose their easy jobs; I have always chosen the challenge and never the easy target".
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The City job was no easier than the United job so even if that was what he was implying it doesn't make sense.
 
Brown Toothpick said:
He had the most expensive team in history. 1 in 3, with no CL, does not sound like a "win", considering the way they celebrated the end of Barca's dominance, only to burn his team to the ground the following season.
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Also Real just started the Galactico 2.0 era with him after some hard years. If i remember correctly they just signed the likes of Ronaldo when he arrived.

Though i gotta agree that taking over ManCity was the smartest decision to make for Guardiola. He had the best BPL squad already and he had all the power to choose his players (even 1 season before if you consider that there were rumours of Pep joining City already and Bayern wanted De Bruyne and Sterling and both of them just joined City instead) with basically unlimited amount of money.

Generally i think taking over Bayern was also smart. He knew their squad had the potential to be the best in the world, but his problem was they proved it too early by winning the CL before his arrival. :lol:
 
City and United ended on similar points last year and both spend a lot of money. Pep has City playing fantastic football out of the gate while having zero experience in the league. Mourinho's start has been rather shakey. Not the time to make digs at him imho.
 
KirkDuyt said:
City and United ended on similar points last year and both spend a lot of money. Pep has City playing fantastic football out of the gate while having zero experience in the league. Mourinho's start has been rather shakey. Not the time to make digs at him imho.
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We ended on similar points but just cause City was lousy in the 2nd part of the season. Their team though was a lot more balanced and needed fewer additions to it.
Fair enough for Pep but a work which needs to be done is a bit harder at United imo. Based on last 3 years that is.
 
City had one of the oldest squads in Europe and they were heading in the wrong direction. I'd say both Manchester clubs faced similar challenges. Both ended with same amount of points and both spent a lot of money in the summer.
 
Ban said:
We ended on similar points but just cause City was lousy in the 2nd part of the season. Their team though was a lot more balanced and needed fewer additions to it.
Fair enough for Pep but a work which needs to be done is a bit harder at United imo. Based on last 3 years that is.
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I agree, and if both teams had similar starts this season I'd say Mourinho did a better job, but City has been much better and much more consistent than United thus far imho.
 
Ishdalar said:
Ranieri was just unlucky, he set the foundation for Valencia's brighter era, with 2 league titles, a UEFA and two UCL finals. Then he did the same with Chelsea.

I just think (and this is just my personal opinion, not defending this as an absolute truth) that luck played a great part in Mou and Pep's legacy. Mou won the UCL with Porto in a year where the European giants were awful, he got lucky against Deportivo when the ref sent off their best defender for patting Deco (his friend) and got lucky again with Inter in semis against Barcelona. If Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona, Juve... weren't this big today, Emery could've achieved something similar with Sevilla
Pep got lucky against Chelsea with Iniesta's goal and the ref screwing them. In football, I refuse to base my arguments just in silverware, Di Matteo managed to win the UCL with Chelsea, that doesn't make him a better manager than Mou who failed to achieve it multiple times
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How did he get lucky with Inter in the semis against Barcelona? Didn't he win the first leg 3-1 and then lost the second 1-2 because he was down to 10 men early in the game?
 
To be fair, City was far from the easy job. Yes, they have a talented squad, but Pep seems to have taken them to another level.
 
Ishdalar said:
"Remember that time I chose the job at Real with Ronaldo, Benzema, Pepe, Ramos, Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Ozil...? that was quite a challenge"
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Real Madrid for years couldn't make the last 16 in Europe before Mourinho.

Also they signed a load of individual doesn't mean guaranteed success. Mourinho got them to play like a team.
 
Interesting. When I first read it I thought he was talking about the football Einstein, the media, since he used the word 'easy jobs' to describe them in the first paragraph. And it also fits with the general theme of the message: 'talking is easy, we dont do that, and we need your support.'

https://i.redd.it/umb4h26a7gnx.jpg
 
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Keeps It tidy said:
Did Leicester have a better squad than us? Tottenham?
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Leicester is very debatable. You could make a case for one of the CBs, maybe Drinkwater, definitely Kante, Mahrez and Vardy.

Tottenham I would say were definitely a match for us. I would argue that Alderwiereld, Vertonghen, Rose, Walker, Alli and Kane would all have strong claims to being regular starters last year for us

Arsenal, Chelsea and City were all at least a match for us on paper, if not better.

All I am saying is, could you say we were in a false position in 5th? I am not so sure
 
Lentwood said:
Yeah...look at our starting XI last year....could you honestly say that that XI was better than Arsenal, Chelsea, City or even Liverpool, Leicester, Tottenham? I am not so sure you can. We came 5th on goal difference and I think it's hard to argue that was a false position
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You can't just look at the squad and compare names for the sake of it. Because it would be bias with whatever you want to think. It is almost pointless. Debating which player is better than which. Different opinions. Also it is a team sport.

You even brought up Chelsea which finished what position again? and they were at 17th under jose around dec as well.

It hugely depends on managers at top level regarding with if any squad is performing to its potential. We should have been in top 4 considering City limped into it.
 
prarek said:
City had one of the oldest squads in Europe and they were heading in the wrong direction. I'd say both Manchester clubs faced similar challenges. Both ended with same amount of points and both spent a lot of money in the summer.
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I think City was the easier job to take at the time Pep took the job. Part of the reason why I think they struggled in the 2nd half of last season was due to the announcement of Pep, which was around the start of the new year. United just had a season of Moyes and 1.5 years of Van Gaal. It was pure shit from United and the fans had gotten tired of the boring football.

Having said that, I think Pep has done a better job regardless.
 
Just shows what a bitter man he is, always having digs at the opposition.
Should just shut up and concentrate on his own team.
 
johnny boy said:
Just shows what a bitter man he is, always having digs at the opposition.
Should just shut up and concentrate on his own team.
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Give it a rest! Pep started this last week when they played Bournemouth and claimed "they were the best team they had played" its merely a response and opinion that some fans share.
 
M4YON said:
Give it a rest! Pep started this last week when they played Bournemouth and claimed "they were the best team they had played" its merely a response and opinion that some fans share.
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Give over Mourinho has always been at it with other managers at whatever club he has been at - bitter through and through.
 
Ishdalar said:
"Remember that time I chose the job at Real with Ronaldo, Benzema, Pepe, Ramos, Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Ozil...? that was quite a challenge"
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It's is considering Barcelona had the best squad in the world for the past 30 years
 
johnny boy said:
Give over Mourinho has always been at it with other managers at whatever club he has been at - bitter through and through.
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Pep and Wenger are the only two managers I've ever heard him have a dig at and that is because they don't like each other.

Not heard one dig at pep until he opened his trap the other week and nothing on Wenger as of yet im sure its coming though.
 
How is he having a dig at Pep when he's saying that in Spain he had to compete against "the best Barcelona"?

Right from the start of the season he tries to downplay his rivalry with Guardiola and when you compare him with the younger version of himself he looks like he's on tranquilizers nowadays. But it seems that the people who never liked him will grasp at any opportunity to make something out of nothing (how dared he say that the FB -no name- must close down the man on the ball and cut off the best angles for a cross, right?) while there are also fans who are always trying to "prove" that Pep isn't what almost everyone else in the football world thinks he is, currently the best manager in the world. Why? Because he's managing City now. Finally, there are some oversensitive Barca fans who simply won't miss a single chance to defend their sacred Paladin...

Anyway, i believe that he was trying to address many of our fans' worries that he's not the right man for the job. Something in the lines of "United are going through a turbulent after Ferguson's retirement and this makes the United job a huge challenge. And i never turned away from challenges such as this, i lead Porto to their greatest period in history when they couldn't even win the Portuguese league, i won the CL with Inter when their fans thought they would never live that moment in their lifetime and i decided to take on the best Barcelona ever. Now the challenge is to win the first PL title of the post Ferguson era".
 
M4YON said:
Pep and Wenger are the only two managers I've ever heard him have a dig at and that is because they don't like each other.
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Mourinho is entertaining, but he's still a dick, he's had loads of digs.
Mazzari, Ranieri are two current prem managers he's had shots at (the mazzari one being particularly mean/funny).

Probably Pardew as well because everyone's had a go at that knob
 
City was not an easy job, pep is making it look easy.
 
M4YON said:
Pep and Wenger are the only two managers I've ever heard him have a dig at and that is because they don't like each other.
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He has had digs at far more managers than just Pep and Wenger. He wasn't hated in Italy and Spain for nothing.
 
In Rainbows said:
I think City was the easier job to take at the time Pep took the job. Part of the reason why I think they struggled in the 2nd half of last season was due to the announcement of Pep, which was around the start of the new year. United just had a season of Moyes and 1.5 years of Van Gaal. It was pure shit from United and the fans had gotten tired of the boring football.

Having said that, I think Pep has done a better job regardless.
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I don't think it had anything to do with Pep being announced really. They had a similar pattern the season before as well when they lost to Burnley, Crystal Palace, Liverpool around the same period. Bayern were losing Pep too and they didn't drop form. Chelsea knew they were losing Hiddink and they still continued to do better under him than in the first half of season. Since winning the title 3 years ago City have been on the downward slope with an ageing squad on massive wages.
 
The United said:
You can't just look at the squad and compare names for the sake of it. Because it would be bias with whatever you want to think. It is almost pointless. Debating which player is better than which. Different opinions. Also it is a team sport.

You even brought up Chelsea which finished what position again? and they were at 17th under jose around dec as well.

It hugely depends on managers at top level regarding with if any squad is performing to its potential. We should have been in top 4 considering City limped into it.
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Right, so I am not really sure what you are arguing here. I am saying that based on our individuals/squad and our 'team' we probably finished in the right position last year. My argument is that City had a better squad and team and were in a false position. Hence my point that Jose has a lot more work to do than Pep
 
Ishdalar said:
No, I didn't say that, you're saying that for me, but maybe I went overboard with my sarcasm. Any top club job is always hard, I just don't get how coaching Real with that squad was such an epic challenge. Madrid is always the hardest job in football, but from the quote in this post I get the idea that Mourinho is selling us his task at Madrid as something bigger than it was.

In hindsight and with a biased opinion yeah, Pep had it easy, but Pep took Barcelona in a crisis (3 years without titles, Ronaldinho and Deco out, 18 points behind Madrid, just lost 4-1 against them, the board facing an uprising to throw them out) and won everything. We can agree that the Bayern job was easy, but after they had a perfect season (destroying Barcelona in the way) there was no way you could come out of that job without people saying "you took the best club in the world and failed to win x" so it was a challenge in its own way
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I don't know why you are mainly arguing that Pep had a difficult job.Any informed football follower knows that Pep had a significant challenge.

But rather my point is that Jose had a difficult job at Real. That was largely due to the presence of Pep in the league.In a way of you actually consider it,that is a great compliment to Pep.
 
Brightonian said:
City and us weren't all that different, challenge-wise. Ok, they scraped into the CL and we didn't, but they had an ageing squad at the end of its prime and we had a much better mix of youth and experience plus a gaggle of promising youngsters to fill any cracks. Maybe City were the slightly easier job but imagine De Bruyne had started this season really badly because he and Pep didn't click; they could easily be struggling. A number of this string of PL victories they've put together have been pretty touch-and-go.

Credit where it's due, he's doing really well so far. Mourinho's doing pretty well too. Remember he has to follow a fifth place finish and Van Gaal-ball, whereas City weren't all that bad under Pellegrini, and it was more a case of worrying about their future than particular problems with their present.
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You forgot one big factor, City has less political issue to deal with. I meant Pep could go into City dressing room and axe Hart, Toure, Nasri easily and other players would feel for their career and picked up their arse and work. City doesn't have tradition as ours, or a style so there is no resistance to Pep's implementation of the style. And City has their style and structure not too alien to Pep's preferred since the DOF is close to a Pep and Pellegrini played a short passing style too.

We dropped level going with Moyes then changed the whole playing style and transfer approach going with LVG ( the lack of DOF). Mourinho's style is different than LVG and Mourinho's reputation is against the tradition of the club (attacking football and youth idealism). So even before he got the job, there was some resistance in the fan base. Then the politic of certain senior players have to be accommodated with the squad. The back bone of the squad is weaker compared to City. We almost bought a new backbone vs City having part of backbone intact Aguero-David Silva-Fernandinho- injured Kompany. In a sense, their staring XI was more settled while we're still working on the ground work with our squad.

Not saying City is an easy job for Pep, just point out there is huge difference between these 2 job in reality. Pep already owned his team and on his conquering quest vs English league while Mourinho is fighting vs the bias toward him to win his own team before challenging for title.
 
M4YON said:
Pep and Wenger are the only two managers I've ever heard him have a dig at and that is because they don't like each other.

Not heard one dig at pep until he opened his trap the other week and nothing on Wenger as of yet im sure its coming though.
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Jose once said Mazzarri(Watford manager) 's biggest achievement was beating him (Jose).
 
Gentleman Jim said:
Wonder if it was a kind of revenge swipe after Pep's post-Bournemouth comments?


"Bournemouth are the best side we have faced this season," Guardiola told BBC Radio Five Live. The coach then went on to say that other clubs have 'just used the long ball' against City this term, despite Kevin De Bruyne scoring City's first goal against United from a long-ball routine.
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Most likely.
 
.Rossi said:
Jesus, and I thought I was biased...

No one has shit on Barcelona fans :D
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It's pretty crazy, isn't it? They're in here and even more biased/aggressive than City fans.

I'm a bit of a Pep fan (he was my first choice at united), but the mere mention of pep not being a saint, & the Barca fans on herre are onthe defensive immediately.

Hell, you'll read through this board and find tons of United fans criticizing SAF.
 
sullydnl said:
Yes, they were. "Pep will be found out in a competitive league" and so on.
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We're 5 games in and the best team theyve played is us and its not like they ran riot against us. Beating Swansea (whose manager is on the ropes), West Ham (whose manager is on the ropes), Stoke (whose manager is on the ropes) and Bournemouth is hardly a sign theyre going to dominate every team they play. Lets see how well they are going after theyve played some teams in the top half of the table.
 
Jed I. Knight said:
It's a poor dig, if it indeed was one aimed at Guardiola. We finished on the same amount of points as them last season, and Mourinho has been given a carte blanche in the transfer market. So I'd say they were more or less starting from the same place.
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My opinion was City had the much better squad. They laid down tools the previous season after the manager got told he was on his way hence the reason we drew level in points. Augero Silva Toure Sterling KDB Kompany would have walked into our team last year. This year not so much but still their squad is stronger. But Jose has def improved our starting 11 and will again next year.
 
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