Pep, Jose Play Down Manchester Derby

United manager Jose Mourinho and his City adversary Pep Guardiola sought to deflect attention from their sulphurous personal rivalry on the eve of Saturday’s mouthwatering Manchester derby.

Friends who became foes, the two men represent opposite ends of football’s ideological spectrum and came to be seen as sworn enemies during their time in Spain.

With both teams yet to drop a point in the Premier League, the contest at Old Trafford is an early opportunity to assert supremacy, but both men are reluctant to fan the flames.

“You want me to give you headlines and I want to go for lunch,” Mourinho, 53, told journalists when he was asked about his relationship with Guardiola on Friday.

Citing Saturday’s championship boxing showdown in London between Britain’s Kell Brook and Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin, Mourinho added: “You want a fight, but the fight is Brook against the Russian guy.

“It’s not us. It’s not me against him. It’s Man United against Man City.”

At a press conference that took place on the opposite side of Manchester at exactly the same time, Guardiola toed a similar line.

When the question of a post-match drink arose, the 45-year-old said: “I will accept if he invites me.

“I have said many times, I have a lot of respect for him. I always try to learn from all my colleagues and I learn from him as well. The rivalry is more the media.”

The two men revealed they recently met at a Premier League managers’ meeting, with Guardiola saying they spoke amicably.

It is two decades since their paths first crossed at Barcelona in the mid-1990s, when Guardiola was team captain and Mourinho worked as an assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal.

The pair became close, but they found themselves in opposition at Camp Nou in 2008 when Barcelona went in search of a new manager.

Despite Mourinho’s stellar achievements with Porto and Chelsea, he was overlooked in favour of the inexperienced Guardiola.