I don’t care – Pep Guardiola reacts to Ratcliffe claims of taking over from Manchester City

New Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has claimed that he wants to knock off Manchester City from the top of English football.

“When Manchester City played Real Madrid at home and won 4-0 last season [in the Champions League semi-finals], that was the best football I have ever seen. If we can ever get to that point, it would be a great achievement,” Ratcliffe said.

“In the north west we have two neighbours who are really impressive football clubs. I want to knock them all off their perch.

“We are friends in the sense we’re all in the north west but they are our biggest enemies. They are clearly our biggest competitors in the UK.”

Speaking at his press conference on Friday, Man City boss Pep Guardiola however remained unfazed, as he said he was only interested in Man City’s business and cared less about Manchester United.

Asked whether he was ‘worried’ about Ratcliffe’s vow to bridge the gap at the top of the Premier League, the City manager replied: “It’s not about [being] worried.

“I’m pretty sure with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the other people that United is going to make a step forward.

“I had a feeling that they know exactly what they have to do, appointing people that need to be appointed, experienced in the business world and make the project better.

“That is normal. I don’t want to get out of where we are so all the teams want it and we want to be there.

“As long as I’m here, we are here, we will try to be there again.”

Pep Guardiola added: “What I want is Man City, my team, to be there, otherwise I don’t care. We want to be there.

“With Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] and Jose Mourinho, it was a period where they were second.

“I would say not close like Liverpool have been in many years, but I’ve been there and always I expect United being there since I arrived on day one, always I expect United being there for the history, the tradition, many things.

“It didn’t happen, I don’t know the reason why. They know it, I guess, I don’t know but I guess they know and the same, it’s their own business, it’s not ours, so what we want is to be there for ourselves.”