Mourinho fires clear dig at old foe Guardiola: 'I hate that word'

Jose Mourinho seems to have fired a dig at long-time rival Pep Guardiola as he claimed a "sabbatical means weakness" with the Catalan currently taking some time out.

Guardiola has just ended his 10-year spell with Manchester City and, despite the offer of work in the international scene, he wants to take some time out. He famously took a year out after leaving Barcelona in 2012, before assuming his role at Bayern Munich.

It was his years at Barcelona, where he faced Mourinho's Real Madrid, that prompted Guardiola's first sabbatical. The Catalan is ultimately renowned for his intensity and taking him away is only natural.

However, the Special One has highlighted how he's never needed to spend time out of the game. His spells out of management have simply come whilst he's been waiting for a job to come up and Mourinho maintains sabbaticals aren't for him.

He said in his Netflix Documentary: “Some guys, they need a sabbatical – which is something that I hate. I hate that word. For me, sabbatical means weakness. Don’t speak with me about sabbaticals. I never need a rest. I will have a rest when he (Mourinho points to the sky) decides to say: ‘Come up’.”

Since shooting to prominence with Porto in the early 2000s, the longest stint Mourinho has had out of management was 11 months - that coming between his Manchester United sacking in December 2018 and him taking on the Tottenham job in November 2019.

Mourinho, now 63, has returned to Real this summer for a second spell and signed a three-year contract. The Portuguese boss admits he cannot foresee a day when he's not in management.

He said: “I cannot even imagine when I am going to stop my life in football. I say 10 more years, but maybe more than 10. It’s fun. It was, it is and will always be fun. I want to win more titles. I want to win new titles. I want to repeat titles.

“I want to do it in places where I have never been. I want to do it in places where I did before. My world is to walk in a football stadium with 50,000 or 90,000 [fans]. I had 100,000. That is my world.

“Without football, there is not something complete in me. But I don’t think it is an obsession. I don’t feel it as an obsession. It is just when you reach a certain level, you want to stay there forever.”

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