Zlatan Ibrahimovic praised Jose Mourinho and described him “he was an inspirational coach due to his man-management style and tactical nous”.
“It was a while before I met him. He’s elegant, he’s confident, but I was surprised. He looked small next to the players but I sensed it immediately: there was this vibe around him.
“Mourinho created personal ties with the players with his text messages and his knowledge of our situations with wives and children, and he didn’t shout. He built us up before matches. It was like theatre, a psychological game.”
At Barcelona Ibrahimovic had made big money in 2009 but spent just a year at Camp Nou and he blames Guardiola for his troubles.
If I am not wrong once an incident occurred when he lost his temper after Barca lost to Mourinho’s Inter in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, Ibrahimovic said: “I completely lost it, and you might have expected Guardiola to say a few words in response, but he’s a spineless coward.”
It was clear and Ibrahimovic also admitted that he was astonished by the way players were expected to behave at Barcelona and does not believe he fitted in under Guardiola.
Ibrahimovic was also not happy because Guardiola felt that he was being unfairly marginalised and he changed Barcelona’s game to suit Lionel Messi.
He said: “Guardiola sacrificed me. That’s the truth. One of my mates told me: ‘Zlatan, it’s as if Barca had bought a Ferrari and was driving it like a Fiat,’ and I thought: ‘Yeah, that’s a good way of looking at it.’ Guardiola had turned me into a simpler player and a worse player. It was a loss for the whole team.