Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City meant no disrespect to Jose Mourinho in documentary
Mourinho is referenced on several occasions in the new series All or Nothing: Manchester City
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Your support makes all the difference.Pep Guardiola has insisted that Manchester City had no intention of disrespecting Jose Mourinho or Manchester United in their new documentary series.
Mourinho accused City of lacking respect on Friday, claiming the club “can buy all the top players but [they] cannot buy class”.
The United manager is referenced several times in All or Nothing: Manchester City, the Amazon-produced series documenting City’s title-winning campaign that was released last week.
The first episode includes a section on Mourinho’s decision to sell Kevin De Bruyne – then an unfancied fringe player under Mourinho at Chelsea, now City’s most influential player.
The second episode, meanwhile, includes footage of City supporters mocking the Portuguese’s conservative style of play after their 2-1 victory at Old Trafford last December.
Ben Kingsley, the documentary’s narrator, also unfavourably compares Mourinho’s reactive, “park the bus” football to Guardiola’s high-pressing, possession-based style in the second episode.
When asked for a response to Mourinho’s remarks, Guardiola agreed that class cannot be bought, but stressed at the same time that City meant no disrespect by the content of the documentary.
“That is true, you cannot buy class. I agree with him, with Jose, you cannot buy class,” he said. “I think we lived an amazing season last season, there were cameras. We did it for ourselves.
“I don’t agree with Jose in terms of being disrespectful to them. This was not our intention, just to film what happened last season.
“But I think we are a club that is trying to grow, to try to win titles, like all the big clubs in the world and we did it for ourselves, for the fans, to see what happened in our locker room. But from the beginning, the players, everybody in the club, said we are doing it.
“Of course the opponents are there but it’s his opinion, it’s Jose’s opinion. Another guy is going to say: ‘We like it [the documentary].’ Another guy will say no. It’s simple like that. But I agree with him, class you cannot buy.”
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