Raiola offered Manchester City Pogba in January – Guardiola

Pep Guardiola claims agent Mino Raiola offered Manchester City Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January, despite branding the Catalan coach “a dog” and “a coward” in a recent interview.

Raiola and Guardiola have a long-standing feud which is said to go back as far as 2010, when the Dutchman’s client Zlatan Ibrahimovic was reportedly forced out of Barcelona due to disputes with the Catalan.

In an interview at the end of March, Raiola also claimed then-AC Milan chief Adriano Galliani stopped him from attacking Guardiola after he led Barca to glory in the 2011 Champions League final.

The City boss addressed Raiola’s criticism at Friday’s news conference ahead of the Manchester derby, pondering why the agent would offer Pogba and Mkhitaryan from rivals Manchester United if he felt so against him.

“I will answer another day. Today, before the game, I will not,” Guardiola said to reporters, initially unwilling to discuss the matter. “I could answer him. I have a question, yeah, I will answer him, come on. Okay.

“I don’t understand why I’m so… I agree with him. Finally, the people discover my secrets; I’m a bad guy, I’m a coward.

“I don’t understand why I’m so bad a guy. I never speak with him, so his opinion [about me], I don’t know – maybe Ibra [Ibrahimovic] explained many things about me.

“But being a guy who two months ago offered me Mkhitaryan and Pogba to play with us. Why?

“Why he offer? He was interested in Mkhitaryan and Pogba to play with us. So he has to protect his players and he has to know he cannot bring the players to a guy like me, like a dog.

“And comparing to a dog is bad. It’s not good. He has to respect the dogs.”

When asked what his response to the offer was, Guardiola replied: “I said no. We don’t have the money enough to buy Pogba because he is so expensive.

“Pogba is an exceptional player. A top, top player.”