Jose Plays Down Derby Rivalry In Houston

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has played down the rivalry with Manchester City, as well as his own alleged discord with Pep Guardiola, ahead of the clubs' historic International Champions Cup match in Houston.

The Reds and Blues will meet at the NRG Stadium in the first-ever Manchester derby held outside of the UK. While the fixture is perennially associated with tenacious competition and pride, the manager sees this outing in the USA as just another game to prepare for the 2017/18 season.

“For me it is a competitive training session that you try to win but it is not the most important thing,” Jose explained at a pre-match press conference in Texas. “We had two matches against MLS teams, now it is time to raise the level and now we get three of the best teams in Europe [City, Real Madrid, Barcelona].

“I don't know the way they will face the game, if they want to win the tournament, the derby, I don't know, but I know what I want – that is to give minutes to my players, to try to improve, to make mistakes, to repeat exercises from training, to stop those mistakes, to make the two new players try to understand the team-mates and for the team-mates to understand them.

“There is always a little bit of rivalry, a little bit of an extra ingredient, but for me it is a friendly. I am not going to jump to celebrate a goal, or cry after any goal we concede. It is preparation.”

One journalist at the press conference asked Mourinho if he was surprised his much-reported 'rivalry’ with Guardiola was so cordial throughout last season, in comparison to their time in Spain when the pair were in charge of La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

“It was not a surprise for me,” Jose stated. “It was a surprise for the people that were selling the rivalry. We worked together for three years [at Barcelona], we shared a changing room, we were laughing and smiling with victories, and crying with defeats. For three years we defended the same club and our relationship was so good for those three years.

“After that he became Barcelona manager and I was Real Madrid manager in a very specific moment of both clubs, where one was the top club in Europe and the other one was a giant in trouble.

"The fight in a country like Spain became the fight of two clubs because the distance to the others is huge and the competition was all about us. It happened. When Pep came to England I was absolutely sure that with the type of competition we have in England, I was sure that it was not about United and City, or Mourinho and Pep. I am sorry if you are disappointed.”