Guardiola said on Sunday when asked if the pair would extend hands, despite an acrimonious rivalry which stretches back to 2010 when the Catalan had stewardship of Barcelona and Mourinho took the reins at Real Madrid. We want to attack, he wants to attack and I think we are going to see a very offensive Manchester United.
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Sunday’s training session was switched hastily to the smaller Olympic Sports Centre to preserve the famous Bird’s Nest stadium’s pitch following days of storms in the Chinese capital that left the ground saturated.
“If during the season we realise the points difference doesn’t allow us to fight for the title, we are going to establish a new title and when you can’t be champion the next target is to finish top four”.
“It’s our second game of preparation”.
“Of course. We are polite guys”.
“We’re going to start to move forward like we talked in the beginning”.
While Mourinho has faced little criticism at this stage, Scholes made headlines this weekend when he told Sport Witness that Paul Pogba is not worth anywhere near the money United are expected to pay for him, and Owen Hargreaves told the Manchester Evening News last month that the club were “spooked” into hiring the Portuguese.
“I’m pretty sure they will be stronger than in previous years”, he said. They are a very good team and they have already played five games.
Herrera believes that despite the heavy defeat to Dortmund in Shanghai, the players will reap the benefits of having another game under their belts when they face Manchester City in Beijing tomorrow.
Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is in Beijing with the squad after recovering from an injury-blighted campaign in 2015-16, but did not train with the rest of the players as he is undergoing his own intensive programme to regain full fitness.
Guardiola, then Schweinsteiger’s coach at Bayern, admitted he sold the German because he was seldom fit and a senior executive at one high-profile club expressed bewilderment at the time of United’s decision to sign the player.
The Red Devils eased to a 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium in Mourinho’s first game in charge before the 13-time Premier League winners headed to China.
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Mourinho accepts that the club’s former players have the power to “create a more hard situation” but said he was more than happy to welcome them at the club.
