LONDON: Pep Guardiola has rejected a proposal to add Paul Pogba to his formidable Manchester City squad. The offer arrived around “two months ago” from Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola, according to the City manager who made the stunning revelation ahead of the Manchester derby on Saturday.
Manchester United’s record signing was at that point embroiled in a dispute with Mourinho over his position and defensive responsibilities within, and his general contribution to, the team. After failing to secure a pay rise for his star client on the back of Alexis Sanchez’s January move to Old Trafford, Raiola began canvassing the interest of other leading clubs in Pogba with a view to a summer transfer.
Raiola’s efforts included proposing the most controversial deal possible — a cross-Manchester move from United to City. On top of the sheer audacity of trying to tempt the Abu Dhabi-owned club into bidding for one of United’s most valuable assets, Raiola’s strategy involved placing the France midfielder under the stewardship of a coach he recently described as “an absolute zero ... a coward, a dog."
Referring to Raiola’s comments in an interview with Dutch publications Quote, Guardiola said he was surprised Pogba’s representative had even considered negotiating a transfer to City. “I am surprised because I am a dog,” said Guardiola. “So if I’m a dog he cannot join his players to here. No way.
“Why he offered if we were interested in Pogba and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan to play with us? I'm a bad guy, so he has to protect his players, so he has to know he cannot bring his players to a guy like me, like a dog.
“And comparing [me to] a dog is bad. It's not good. He has to respect the dogs.”
Raiola's conflict with Guardiola is long standing, with the agent criticising the Catalan's handling of Zlatan Ibrahimovic during their single season together at Barcelona in 2009-10. “Pep Guardiola, the coach, is fantastic,” Raiola told Quote earlier this month. “As a person he’s an absolute zero. He’s a coward, a dog.
“He’s a classic priest. ‘Do as I tell you; don’t do what I do...’ If Manchester City win the Champions League this season it will emphasise what a good coach he is – but I’ll hate it.
“Guardiola told Zlatan to go to him if he ever had any problems or complaints. But then he just ignored him and wasn’t playing him. He didn’t even say 'hello’ to Zlatan. Guardiola did the same to Maxwell, who is a lovely lad. So I told Zlatan to go and park his Ferrari in the manager’s spot.”
Asked for his response to Raiola's comments on the eve of a match in which Pogba's United will attempt to stop City from securing the Premier League title against them, Guardiola initially declined to comment. The Catalan then said he had “a question” about Raiola's behaviour.
“I am agreed with him,” Guardiola said. “Finally, the people discover my secrets: I'm a bad guy. I'm a coward. I never speak with him ... so maybe Ibra explained many things about me. But being a bad guy, like two months ago he offered Mkhitaryan and Pogba to play with us. Why?”
Guardiola said Pogba was “an exceptional player — a top, top player”, but that City – who have committed an unprecedented €586million to transfer fees alone over his two campaigns at the club — could not afford the deal. “I said no. We don’t have enough money to buy Pogba because he’s so expensive.”
Mourinho is unlikely to take well to Guardiola’s public intervention into an issue that is of critical importance to his preparations for a third campaign as United manager. Should his team lose at City on Saturday, the English title will be decided on the earliest date since 1956.
Asked on Friday about offering Pogba to City, Raiola told BBC Sport: “I never spoke to Pep Guardiola. I would not speak to him about players, I would speak to Manchester City. They are a fantastic club with a fantastic manager.”