- Jose Mourinho rejected an invitation to appear in a Sky Sports montage marking Guardiola’s 1000th game in management
- Jurgen Klopp “did not need asking twice” while Roy Hodgson learned to record on his phone specifically for the occasion
- Guardiola quipped off camera: “You didn’t ask Jose, then?”
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Jose Mourinho rejected an invitation to appear in a Sky Sports tribute montage marking Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game in management earlier this season, as per a new wide-ranging report.
The revelation comes from Mail Sport’s Jack Gaughan as part of a wide-ranging piece on Guardiola’s time at Manchester City, published in the days following the Catalan’s emotional farewell after Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium.
In the piece, it has been revealed that Jose Mourinho had rejected an invitation to take part in a montage filmed by Sky Sports marking Guardiola’s 1000th game in management earlier this season.
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Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp “did not need asking twice to take part”, while 78-year-old Roy Hodgson was “so keen to be involved” that he learnt how to record on his phone specifically for the occasion.
With Mourinho a notable omission from the reel, off camera Guardiola is said to have turned to the Sky television crew and quipped, “You didn’t ask Jose, then?”.
What the anecdote tells us about Guardiola and Mourinho
The quip is vintage Guardiola: self-aware, gently mischievous and delivered with the kind of timing that suggests he knew exactly what he was saying and precisely what it implied.
The rivalry between Mourinho and Guardiola is one of the most documented in modern football history, stretching back to their time as opposing coaches in La Liga and continuing through their years in England.
That Klopp, arguably Guardiola’s greatest rival of the Premier League era, participated without hesitation speaks volumes about the difference in how the two relationships have aged.
The pair have spoken warmly of each other on numerous occasions since Klopp’s departure from Liverpool, with a mutual respect built across years of competing at the very highest level.
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Hodgson’s commitment, meanwhile – learning to use his phone at 78 specifically for the occasion – is perhaps the most endearing detail of the entire story.
It reflects the esteem in which Guardiola is held across generations of the English game, from the oldest hands in the dugout to the brightest young managers of the current era.
The Mourinho omission and Guardiola’s reaction to it will be remembered as one of the more quietly revealing footnotes of his 10 years in Manchester.
Even in the warmth of a milestone celebration, the shadow of that particular rivalry never quite disappears and Guardiola, as ever, found exactly the right words to acknowledge it without saying anything at all.