Pep Guardiola's funny response to Zlatan criticising his ego in Haaland answer | OneFootball

Zlatan Ibrahimovic isn’t exactly Pep Guardiola’s biggest fan.

It’s one of football’s worst-kept secrets that Ibrahimovic didn’t enjoy his single-season spell at Barcelona and the man himself isn’t afraid to explain that Guardiola was a massive part of the reason why.

There are too many scathing Ibrahimovic quotes on the matter to name exhaustively, but one anecdote that can’t help coming to mind is the Swede’s recollection of confronting Guardiola in the dressing room after Barca’s Champions League semi-final exit to Inter Milan in 2010.

What has Zlatan said about Guardiola before?

According to Sky Sports, Ibrahimovic once explained: “Guardiola was staring at me and I lost it. I thought: ‘there is my enemy, scratching his bald head!’ I yelled: ‘You haven’t got any b***s!’ and worse than that I added: ‘You can go to hell!’

“I completely lost it, and you might have expected Guardiola to say a few words in response, but he’s a spineless coward.”

Ibrahimovic infamously added: “When you buy me, you are buying a Ferrari. If you drive a Ferrari, you put premium petrol in the tank, you hit the motorway and you step on the gas.

“Guardiola filled up with diesel and took a spin in the countryside. He should have bought a Fiat.”

Even by Ibrahimovic’s standards, they are pretty inflammatory quotes, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise to learn that his dislike for Guardiola is so strong that it can’t help coming to mind whenever he’s asked about anything vaguely related.

What did Zlatan say about Haaland and Guardiola?

And that was most certainly the case this week when Ibrahimovic was posed a question about Erling Haaland that eventually ended up with him throwing yet more shade about Guardiola.

According to Goal, the AC Milan striker said in an interview with Canal Plus: “Do I like Haaland? Yes, very much so. I think he is a very intelligent player.

“He doesn’t go down to get the ball to play. He waits in front of the goal and he kills them all. He reminds me of players like [Filippo] Inzaghi, [David] Trezeguet, [Christian] Vieri. He is the new version of these players.

“Can Guardiola make Haaland even stronger? It depends on Guardiola’s ego, if he lets him become bigger than him or not. Because he didn’t let me get bigger? Me or others? Not only me, many others.”

Zlatan just couldn’t resist, could he?

How did Guardiola respond to Zlatan’s comments?

On the back of Ibrahimovic’s scathing comments, the opportunity was there to be taken for reporters to put the quotes to Guardiola himself during his pre-match press conference for Manchester City‘s clash with Fulham.

And Guardiola didn’t disappoint because instead of taking the easy way out by either batting away the relevancy or simply giving a political answer, the City boss delivered the goods with a superbly sarcastic reply.

The 51-year-old did his best to pour water all over Ibrahimovic’s suggestions by jokingly agreeing that he had a massive ego and wanted everything to be all about him, ridiculing the comments in the process.

“He is right, he is completely right,” Guardiola amusingly responded. “In this club, in this team, my ego is beyond every other person, every player.

“I don’t like it when Erling scores three goals and all the highlights are for him. I’m so jealous! Honestly, I’m so jealous!

“I said: ‘Erling: ‘please no more goals, otherwise the newspapers won’t talk about me, and just about me. He’s right, he [Ibrahimovic] knows me perfectly. Maybe he can write another book.”

Oof.

A brilliant response by Guardiola

While Ibrahimovic is obviously entitled to his opinion and only he knows his truth in regards to that troublesome year at Barcelona, he can’t help coming off like the bad guy with just how savage his comments have been at times.

And you can’t help cringing for the guy when Guardiola is essentially deflating the gravity of his quotes before his eyes by effectively pointing out the ridiculousness at the heart of them.

Granted, sarcasm doesn’t automatically end valid arguments that Guardiola shies away from managing big personalities, but we’re nevertheless inclined to say that the City coach won this particular spar.

That is, of course, unless Ibrahimovic’s warning do indeed turn out to be true and Haaland feels held back by Guardiola further down the line. As far as that’s concerned, only time will tell…

Mo Salah will HURT TOTTENHAM 😨 (Football Terrace)