Guardiola holds no grudges ahead of Barcelona friendly

Pep Guardiola says there will be no problems between him and former club Barcelona when he faces them with Bayern Munich later this month.

The two sides will meet at the Allianz Arena in a friendly on July 24, with the atmosphere between Guardiola and the Liga champions currently frosty.

Guardiola criticised Barcelona president Sandro Rosell on Thursday for not giving him “peace” after he left the club as manager in 2012.

The Spaniard was also unhappy with suggestions that he had not made the effort to see his former assistant at Camp Nou, Tito Vilanova, when the current Barca coach had travelled to New York – where Guardiola took his sabbatical – for cancer treatment.

However, the 42-year-old holds no grudges against Barcelona and said he is happy with what he achieved while at the club.

“I did the best I could at Barcelona,” Guardiola said. “The staff and coaches have nothing to worry about. I left and have nothing to complain about – all I asked was to be left in peace.

“I went off to learn English and I ended up trying to learn German. That was all I focused on.

“I just ask the board to go their own way and leave me alone and stop using me and my friends to hurt me.”

Guardiola also refuted suggestions made by Santos vice-president Odilio Rodrigues that he had tried to dissuade Neymar’s father from guiding his son to join Barcelona.

Reports had claimed that Guardiola aired his view that Neymar and Lionel Messi would not be able to play together, but the Spaniard denied making such remarks.

“I don’t know the vice-president of Santos but probably his intermediaries have got this very wrong, because the information they have given him is false,” he said.

“I would never make any comments like those he said I made.

“The best players can always play together and those two are capable of playing together for many years.”