PEP GUARDIOLA PUSHED aside any suggestion he would not shake hands with arch-rival Jose Mourinho and insisted all would be friendly when Manchester City play Manchester United on Monday.
“We are polite guys, why not?” Guardiola said this morning when asked if the pair would extend hands, despite an acrimonious rivalry which stretches back to 2010 when the Catalan had stewardship of Barcelona and Mourinho took the reins at Real Madrid.
“Why should we not shake hands? No reason why. He will want to win and so will I, that’s all,” the City boss told a news conference after training at Beijing’s Olympic Sports Centre ahead of the International Champions Cup pre-season tour match.
“It’s a friendly game, a really friendly game.”
Since taking on their respective Manchester football giants, each manager has insisted they will not concentrate on each other too much.
But Guardiola acknowledged that United would mount a serious challenge in the English Premier League after a period in the doldrums since the retirement of Alex Ferguson in 2013.
“I’m pretty sure they will be stronger than in previous years,” said Guardiola.
With this manager I’m sure they will buy new players. They will be a strong team.”
Sunday’s training session was switched hastily to the smaller Olympic Sports Centre to preserve the famous Bird’s Nest stadium’s pitch following days of storms in the Chinese capital that have left the ground saturated.
The first Manchester derby outside the UK will be played at the centrepiece of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Monday night, weather permitting. More than 200 people have died in flooding in northern provinces surrounding Beijing.
Guardiola acknowledged that conditions would not be ideal and his first priority at this stage of pre-season was to avoid any injuries.
“We didn’t see the pitch but there is a lot of water in the last days so we understand it’s not in a good condition,” said Guardiola.
“But OK we’re going to adapt and adjust. The most important thing is that the players are not going to be injured.
We know the humidity for the training is not ideal, but we also know that it’s so important to come here to know the people and to play a good two games against amazing teams like United and Dortmund.”
Captain Vincent Kompany is in Beijing with the squad after recovering from an injury-blighted campaign in 2015-16, but did not train with the rest of the players as he is undergoing his own intensive programme to regain full fitness.
Guardiola said there was a possibility he could be ready for the first game of the new season against Sunderland on 13 August, but he would not rush the Belgian central defender back and risk further injury.
“The physio says he is ready but he needs to show that he can play one week, then one week more, to play regularly,” said Guardiola.
“The most important thing is for Vincent to get fit – if it’s for Sunderland, perfect. If not, September.”
United lost 4-1 to Borussia Dortmund in Shanghai on Friday and City will play the German side in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Thursday to conclude their China tour.
Ok I’ll be the first to say it. Just move the home games to Wembley. That way most of the home fans have less distance to travel anyway.
@Darren McGuire: I doubt you are the first to say something like that
@Darren McGuire: funny cos it’s true
@Alana: funny cause its not…
@Teddyzigzagbigbag: they should move their home games to the Aviva
It’s a good move. United are the best supported club in England. Their average attendance is over 74k which is pretty much capacity. Spurs are second which is to be expected when they are in wembley and then suprisingly comes Arsenal and west ham. Liverpool are below city with an average of 53k per match which is over 20k per game shy of United. That 20k difference is the same as Swansea or watfords average attendance for this season.
@Jim Demps: man knows his attendances!!
@Jim Demps: what’s surprising about Arsenal and West Ham coming 3rd and 4th, they have the 3rd and 4th largest stadiums. Man City and Liverpool don’t have the capacity to be higher on the list.
@John Buckley: Jim is just quoted the largest stadiums in order and appears to be suprised that they also have the highest attendances
@Jim Demps: god you are smart
@Gareth Keenan: maybe you should read both comments again. He is going by attendance order only, Wembley is bigger than Old Trafford. I asked what was surprising because it is no surprise to most people. Your comment added absolutely nothing to this thread.
@John Buckley: I guess the surprise on my part was that of West Ham being so far up the list. I know they have a large stadium and a good fan base but I didn’t think they were getting that high of an average attendance. If I’d have had to guess before I looked it up I would have put them down around 6-7th with Liverpool.
Looks like all the commenters on this thread are either football stadia enthusiasts or dusted off the old encyclopedias… Haha, great stuff lads.
88000 wouldn’t be the biggest in Europe.
@Slim Jim: I imagine the story is misconstruing the point. An 88k capacity would almost certainly see United have the highest average attendance in Europe (Dortmund’s is 79k and Barcelona 77k).
Wouldn’t be the first time united have used city’s ground as home. City allowed united to use Maine road after WW2. Ethiad is much more of a city centre stadium being only 20 mins from Piccadilly. Also, city don’t actually own the ethiad, they just pay an annual rent to Manchester City council (similar to shamrock rovers) so I could see this happening.
@Dublin Gooner: city own there own stadium they bought it years ago and Old Trafford is as close to Piccadilly as city’s ground is
@Colm Connolly: city do not own the stadium. They have a 99 year lease or some such deal from manchester city council.
Another way to extract cash for their tourist fans by extending
the library, well its as quiet as a library on match days anyway….
@Forfar So Good: Oh so when you called it a library, you didn’t mean it was an actual library, where you can go to acquire books on a temporary basis for free. That’s where my confusion came from. You were in fact talking about the fact that traditionally libraries are quiet, and were humourously comparing the stadium to that, by inferring that it is also quiet. I get it.
@Jack Jones: the away fans are normally the quietest in OT
@Forfar So Good: How droll. Show me any stadium in England which has outstanding atmosphere in every game. Before Anfield is mentioned, like any other team that only happens on the biggest occasions. English stadiums are simply not as loud now. The average attendees are older now.
They don’t think much of themselves do they
A new manager should be priority, before United slip away into an abyss of mediocrity.
@Daniel Donovan: The abyss of being ahead of every team in England bar Man City.
It would just be a bigger library
As United fan I’d think we would have more things pressing issues to be concerned about. I mean which is more important right now; getting back to being a strong team or saying we used to win things, but look at the size of the stadium?
@Andrew Keane: it’s not going to happen for another 2 to 3 years and word is over here they would use boltons stadium.
@Andrew Keane: Proper planning means looking beyond 2-3 years. Besides United are clearly improved in the league this season and are clearly going to be among the challengers next season.
@Gary Dunne: LOL! Next year is our year. Where did i hear that before?
@Paul Friday Shannon: what’s the capacity of Bolton’s stadium. If you’re talking 30,000 or less you may as well say Oldham or Bury which are probably considered part of Greater Manchester now.