We keep repeating how excited the European media are about the Manchester derby, but it really is huge. New players on both sides have of course increased the expectation of both sets of fans, but it’s the managers who are the real stars of the show.
The coverage is biggest in Spain, where Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola were huge rivals. The Catalan press are sworn enemies of the Manchester United manager, and of course quite keen on the Catalan Manchester City boss.
For Catalan newspaper Sport that’s impacted their coverage of the match, and it seems their comparisons are a little biased.
On the Europa League cup count, both men are scored as zero, but Mourinho had won the competition with FC Porto in 2003, when it was the UEFA Cup.
Sport credit Guardiola with 6 league titles to Mourinho’s 4, but that ignores the now Manchester United manager’s two league titles with Porto, and his first two with Chelsea, making the total 8.
On domestic cups, Guardiola scores 4, and Mourinho scores 3, but the Portuguese won the Taca de Portugal with Porto, and the FA Cup with Chelsea, making his cup count 5… and that ignores 3 League Cups with Chelsea.
‘National Supercup’ titles are 3 each, but, once again, Mourinho adds more prior to 2008, one each with Porto and Chelsea.
Perhaps most interestingly, Sport have granted Guardiola 3 Champions League titles, despite him only winning 2, and only given Manchester United’s manager 1, despite him also winning 2.
The convenient date span, and giving Guardiola an extra Champions League, is perhaps to be expected given the preference for the Manchester City manager.
So in Madrid they’d be biased toward Mourinho, right?
It’s not that simple. Mourinho wasn’t universally loved by the Madrid media, and made his fair share of enemies. There’s not a lot of sticking up for their boy in the fight.
Marca on Thursday have a look at the comparative spending between the two men, to show that Mourinho has spent far more.
Guardiola’s career spend is put at €748.5m and Mourinho’s €1.24bn, but if they’d taken a leaf out of Sport’s book then that would have changed to €860.77m, bringing the pair far closer together.
Spanish coverage of Manchester City and Manchester United, and their respective managers, is huge, there are journalists permanently based in city from major Spanish sport newspapers, and Guardiola seems to be the favoured man.
