After veteran striker Zlatan Ibrahimović attacked the Manchester City head coach, Pep Guardiola over handling star striker Erling Haaland, the 51-year-old Spanish coach has took a jibe at the 41-year-old AC Milan striker with his sarcastic comments.
On Thursday, Zlatan praised Haaland on Canal Plus and went on to criticize Guardiola when he was asked if Guardiola able to improve him (Erling)? Zlatan responded, "That depends on the ego that Guardiola has. If he allows himself to be bigger than Haaland or not. He didn't allow me or the others to be as big."
In a pre-match conference on Friday night, Pep Guardiola gave a sarcastic reply on Zlatan's comments and said, "He is right, he is completely right. 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!"
With a humorous touch, Pep continued, "I said 'Erling, please no more goals, otherwise the newspapers won’t talk about me, and just about me. He's right, he (Ibrahimović) knows me perfectly. Maybe he can write another book."
Earlier, the Swedish captain claimed that he was waived by Pep Guardiola to allow Lionel Messi play in the middle during his time at La Liga giants Barcelona in 2009-10. Meanwhile, Manchester City will look to go on the top of the Premier League points table for a short period as they are scheduled to face Fulham at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.