Pep Guardiola has said Manchester United are deluded if they believe that taking Omar Berrada from Manchester City to be their chief executive will solve their problems at a stroke.
Berrada has been placed on gardening leave after agreeing to leave his post as chief football operations officer at City Football Group and join United. The move has been regarded as a coup for United but Guardiola pointed out that it would not suddenly shift the balance of power in Manchester.
“His knowledge goes to United, that’s the reality,” City’s manager said. “But Kevin De Bruyne is still in Man City – De Bruyne will play here. Erling Haaland will play here, so in the end it’s not that simple like that. Otherwise with the power of United they would have done it before. Maybe United thinks with this person everything is going to change – congratulations. I don’t know if this is going to happen.
“He is a lovely person, incredible character, incredible professional. Yesterday I saw him, we hugged and I wished him all the best; deeply I wish him the best because he’s a fantastic person. But I don’t know if [by] doing this [clicks his fingers] everything is going to be sorted and it works. If it does happen then, oh my God, they have to make a stand for Omar Berrada in the future because he’d deserve it.”
Guardiola was also combative in his remarks about Aleksander Ceferin, hitting back after the Uefa president said the governing body was “right” to ban City from European competition for two years for alleged breaches of financial fair play regulations.
City received a ban and €30m fine in 2020 after it was ruled the club had falsely inflated sponsorship revenues over a four-year period but the decision to prevent them entering the Champions League was overturned by the court of arbitration for sport and their fine was reduced to €10m, which City described as a “validation of the club’s position”.
The court found most of the alleged breaches were not established or time-barred but that City had obstructed the investigations. Ceferin told the Telegraph this week: “We know we were right. We wouldn’t decide if we didn’t think we were right.”
Although the Uefa matter is over, City are awaiting the outcome of a Premier League case after receiving more than 100 charges, with a hearing due this year. Ceferin said he did not want to comment on that but acknowledged Everton and Nottingham Forest fans could be frustrated with the amount of time it has taken to conclude City’s case.
“As a lawyer that he is, the president of Uefa, he should wait and after do whatever he wants,” Guardiola said. “The sentence from Uefa, he has to respect it and he has to wait. He has a lot of jobs to do at Uefa. To be involved in the case with lawyers, he should respect the procedure and understand we have the right to defend ourselves.”
Guardiola said Haaland was not ready to play at Tottenham in Friday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie but was close to returning. City have announced the signing of the Argentinian attacking midfielder Claudio Echeverri from River Plate for an initial £12.5m. The 18-year-old will stay on loan at River until next January.
