Mourinho wanted Guardiola as Barca assistant

Jose Mourinho wanted Pep Guardiola as his assistant had he become coach of Barcelona, the club’s former vice-president has revealed.

The Real Madrid boss was Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal’s assistant at Camp Nou, and Marc Ingla said the Portuguese tactician had almost rejoined the Catalan giants to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007/08 season.

“We had a meeting in Lisbon with him (Mourinho) and his representative,” Ingla told AS on Friday.

“Mourinho showed us a PowerPoint summarising his football philosophy – how to evolve our classic 4-3-3, the ingoing and outgoings he had in mind, and even people who could work on his technical staff.”

“He proposed the names of Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Sergi Barjuan and Albert Ferrer to be his number two.”

In the end, the club chose Guardiola, and Ingla attributed the decision to former director of football Txiki Begiristain.

“He was Txiki’s first choice and because Mourinho said he was never going to change his attitude towards the media,” Ingla said.

Barcelona and Real Madrid clash in La Liga in the Spanish capital on December 10.