“?Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has insisted that he cannot afford to get caught up in a head to head battle with new Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola next season because there are more than just two clubs in the Premier League title race.
Mourinho and Guardiola were famously the best of enemies when in charge of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, but the Portuguese says things have to be different this time around.
“[What has happened in the past] does not allow me to be innocent. For two years Pep and I were in a league where the champion would be either me or him, Real Madrid or Barcelona,” Mourinho is quoted as saying by the Guardian while speaking to students in Lisbon.
“In a situation like this, individual fights make sense because they can influence things,” he added.
“In the Premier League, if I focus on him and Manchester City, and he on me and Manchester United, someone else is going to win the league.”
Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, defending champions Leicester and even West Ham at their new base in the Olympic Stadium all have their eyes firmly fixed on lifting the Premier League trophy in May 2017 and Mourinho knows he can’t afford to ignore them.
The 53-year-old, who is looking to restore United to the pinnacle of English football and eventually claim a Champions League title with a third different club, spent his first day at the club’s Carrington training ground earlier this week.
He was shown around by executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, a man whose wide grin could rival Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat, and also met club legend and director Sir Bobby Charlton.
Engaging in a joke with United’s all-time record goalscorer, Mourinho reminded Charlton that he had been responsible for crushing Portugal’s dreams of World Cup glory in 1966 with both of England’s goals in the semi-final.
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