Catalan mastermind Pep Guardiola’s arrival at Manchester City will reignite some old rivalries as he faces off against two of his rivals from his days in La Liga and the Bundesliga.
Next season will see Pep Guardiola take over as head coach of Manchester City. In Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and the new Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, he will come up against two familiar foes.
However in his first press conference as City manager, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager played down talks of a personal rivalry between the managers.
“They help me, the big coaches, and José is one of them; they help me to reach another level. My experience against him, against [Jürgen] Klopp at Dortmund, they made me better,” said Guardiola, according to the Guardian.
The Catalan also reiterated Jose Mourinho’s thoughts on the subject of their personal rivalry.
“All the managers in the world want to win. José said pretty well that it is not about him or me. The other one is going to win so what I saw from the distance is it is so tough to win the games here but we played many times against each other.”
The best managers in the Premier League
The rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola isn’t the only managerial encounter to look forward to next season. The Premier League has undergone a sea change as the elite clubs have looked to hire the best coaches in Europe. The Manchester derby could take on the feel of an El Classico because of Mourinho and Guardiola, but so too will other rivalries involving those two and former Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp, who will come up against the Special One for the first time next season.
Incoming Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is also another tactician to watch out for, after having lead Italy to the quarter-finals of the European Championship. Conte could completely neutralize the tiki-taka philosophy of Pep Guardiola like he did against Spain in Italy’s Round of 16 match of Euro 2016. Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho just missed Conte in the Serie A, with the Italian taking over at Juventus in the same season the Portuguese left Inter, and it will be an interesting battle between them as well.
Besides the incoming managers, there are the wily veterans like Arsene Wenger, Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino, who are all capable of turning the tables on the established elite. All in all 2015-16 is going to be a mouth watering season for Premier League fans.
