Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has addressed Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent remarks, acknowledging the aspiration of teams to emulate Manchester City’s success. 

Ratcliffe, following his partial acquisition of Manchester United, expressed a desire to challenge the dominance of both City and Liverpool in domestic and European competitions.

While Ratcliffe commended Manchester City as one of the premier teams globally, he emphasized his ambition to surpass their achievements. 

“We have a lot to learn from the noisy neighbour, and our other neighbour [Liverpool]. They are the enemy at the end of the day and there’s nothing I would like better than to knock both of them or one of them off their perch,” he said.

Guardiola, ahead of the Bournemouth fixture, responded to these comments for the first time, acknowledging the competitive spirit driving teams to strive for excellence.

“It is the truth,” the Man City boss said. “Teams admit it, they want to be closer to us and you can’t deny the reality.

“When I’ve been below teams, I’ve always admired them and said ‘what do you have to do to be close and challenge them?’. They are the really competitive people who you want to be.

“When you want to judge just for things that will feel comfortable for one day, they will not arrive where we are right now.

“When we were below and United were winning, we were watching them, admiring and learning from them with the period with Sir Alex Ferguson and all the generations. I’m sure Man City were admiring and wanting to be there and now we are.

“That’s why for these types of comments, I had the feeling that they will be back.”

When asked if he was worried about any Man Utd improvement under Ratcliffe, Guardiola replied: “It is not about [being] worried. I’m pretty sure with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the other people, United are going to make a step forward.

“I have a feeling that they know exactly what they have to do, appoint the people they need to. His experience in the business world will make the project better.

“But that is normal, all the teams want it. As long as I am here, we will try to be there again.

“I want my team, Man City, to be there, otherwise I don’t care. Only under Jose Mourinho was there a period when they were second, maybe not close like Liverpool over many years.

“But I have always expected since I arrived that United would be there for history, for tradition, for many things. Why it didn’t happen, I don’t know the reason, but I guess they know it.

“But it’s their business, not ours. We want to be there for ourselves.”