Saturday 9 July 2016 07:54, UK
Pep Guardiola says a soon-to-be-renewed rivalry with Jose Mourinho has helped take his coaching to a new level.
The relationship between Barcelona and Real Madrid threatened to plumb new depths in the days when Guardiola managed one and Mourinho the other.
Barca were the subject of regular Mourinho barbs, and the nadir came when the Portuguese poked Guardiola's assistant Tito Vilanova in the eye during a touchline scuffle in August 2011.
But Manchester United's new manager has been at pains to play down the significance of both men's arrival in Manchester, and Guardiola was equally conciliatory when he faced the inevitable question at his first City press conference.
"I think Jose put it pretty well in his press conference," City's new head coach said. "It's not about him or about me.
"We played many times against each other, and I can only say as a coach that the big coaches - and Jose is of course one of them - help me to reach another level as a coach.
"My experience against him and against, for example, Jurgen Klopp or Thomas Tuchel at Borussia Dortmund and a lot of managers in England and Spain - it made me better.
"All managers in the world want to win and here they're going to try to win as well."
The first Manchester meeting between Mourinho and Guardiola takes place at Old Trafford on September 10, live on Sky Sports.
