‘The truth!’ - Pep Guardiola backs Sir Jim Ratcliffe's ‘knock Man City off their perch’ fighting talk - and admits Cityzens used to ‘admire’ Man Utd ‘The truth!’ - Pep Guardiola backs Sir Jim Ratcliffe's ‘knock Man City off their perch’ fighting talk and admits Cityzens used to ‘admire’ Man Utd

Ratcliffe's £1.3 billion ($1.6bn) partial takeover of the Red Devils was confirmed on Tuesday, with the British billionaire outlining his ambitions to get the Premier League giants winning trophies again- and edging out City and Liverpool in the process. Now, City boss Guardiola has responded to Ratcliffe's determined proclamations.

When asked about Ratcliffe's remarks, Guardiola told reporters on Friday: “It’s the truth! As [soon] as the teams admit it, they will be closer to us. If they want to deny it for things that are not the reality then it’s their problem. It’s not our problem. When I’ve been below teams I’ve always admired them and thought about what we need to do to be close, to challenge them. If they want to be judged on things they are comfortable with for one day they will not arrive where we are now.

“When we were below and United were winning, we were watching them, admiring them. We wanted to learn from them. The period of Sir Alex Ferguson – the generation with Roy Keane, David Beckham, Gary Neville – and all those big, big players, Rio Ferdinand – I’m pretty sure City admired and thought ‘we want to be there’. Now we are there. That’s why, for these type of comments, that I have the feeling that they will be back.”

Ratcliffe, who is now in charge of football operations at United, has already recruited Omar Berrada from City as their CEO and Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth could follow suit. While this is a positive start, they still are a long way off Guardiola's Cityzens and Liverpool in terms of winning the biggest prizes in football.

Long-term plans aside, United host Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, whereas City travel to Bournemouth later that day. Liverpool, on the other hand, take on Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.