Jose Mourinho Mocks Pep Guardiola: "Our Main Objective Is to Avoid Relegation"

Ahead of Real Madrid's away trip to relegation candidates Levante, Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has surprised the media by claiming that Real Madrid's first goal of the season will be to avoid relegation:

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We will fight to stay in the first division and to take 40 points. Until we take 40 or more points our main objective is to avoid relegation. By achieving this quickly, we will look sooner for other objectives. We must continue to take points.

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Reportedly, Jose Mourinho was making a tongue-in-cheek response to comments made by Pep Guardiola earlier this week. Looking to downplay expectations on his team following their rough start this season, Guardiola stated that it would be "normal" if Barcelona were not to win any trophies this season:

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I will never promise any titles and in fact, it would be equally as normal if we didn't win anything. All I can promise is that the team will be recognizable.

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As is very well known, Jose Mourinho loves to play mind games with all his rival managers. He's done it everywhere he's been a manager. In some countries, like England, he was loved for it. In other countries, like Italy, he was hated for it. But here, what is to be made of Jose Mourinho's response to Pep Guardiola?

On one hand, it can be said that Jose Mourinho's comments were unnecessary. Pep Guardiola has always been a humble, non-combative manager in the media, and his comments fall right in line with his personality. Why is it Jose Mourinho's business what Pep Guardiola says about his own team?

One the other hand, it can also be said that Jose Mourinho were necessary. While being humble is a respectable quality, world football is exciting because of how competitive and cutthroat it is. Thus, it is a well-known fact that both Real Madrid and Barcelona enter every season with the expectation to win major trophies, and to deny that and weaken the competitive nature of the competition between Real Madrid and Barcelona benefits nobody, aside from maybe Pep Guardiola himself.

As an alternative to both of the above positions, a fair question to ask would be who cares? Why must we take every sound bite that Jose Mourinho gives us and try to make a big deal out of them? Jose Mourinho's comments were neither necessary or unnecessary. He thought Pep Guardiola's comments were unrealistic, and decided to mock them in a rather roundabout, comical way. So what?

What do you think about Jose Mourinho's comments? Post your thoughts in the comments section below, and don't forget to vote in the poll.