It allegedly caused conflict between them after Vilanova replaced Guardiola at Barca

Pep Guardiola fell out with his friend Tito Vilanova after the two were offered the job of taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, former Barcelona manager and player Charly Rexach has claimed.

Rexach won the league with Barcelona as a player, was assistant to Johan Cruyff when the team won its first European Cup in 1992, and also managed the team before being replaced by Louis Van Gaal.

Asked in interview in local Catalan paper Regiò7 why Guardiola fell out with Vilanova, Rexach says: ‘Tito had a strong character. The conflict arose when he chose to take over [from Guardiola] as first team coach.

Charly Rexach claimed that Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova fell out over the Manchester United job

Rexach (left) is a former player and manager of Barcelona and made the claims in an interview

Vilanova, who coached Barcelona after Guardiola left, passed away from throat cancer in April last yer

‘At first Pep seemed to understand the decision but in the end it bothered him. They both had an offer to coach Manchester [United] once Pep’s sabbatical had passed.

‘Things got worse when Tito went to a clinic in New York to received cancer treatment and Pep, who was at the time living there with his family, never visited him. Pep knew [he was there] because the two wives had bumped into each other during his time there.’

Guardiola quit Barcelona at the end of the 2011-12 season. His former number two Vilanova took over while Guardiola took a year off from football before taking over at Bayern Munich a year later.

Sir Alex Ferguson walked away from Old Trafford at the end of the 2012-13 season and Rexach’s comments suggest United tried to replace Ferguson with Guardiola.

In Marti Perarnau’s book about Guardiola’s first year coaching Bayern Munich 'Pep Confidential' he writes about the former Barca manager’s interest in managing at Old Trafford..

“The Catalan was impressed and told [his personal assistant] Manuel Estiarte privately: ‘I like this place. I could see myself coaching here one day,' he says of Guardiola's reaction to visiting Old Trafford.

In his book Perarnau also claims Guardiola spoke to Txiki Begristain about the Manchester City job.

In the Regiò7 interview Rexach refers to 'Manchester' without stating ‘City’ or ‘United’. But in Spain Manchester United is usually referred to as just ‘Manchester’ and Manchester City is normally referred to as ‘City’.

Rexach claims that Guardiola and Vilanova had an offer to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United

Rexach added that Guardiola learned parts of the game from the Southampton manager Ronald Koeman

Rexach also says Guardiola learned his trade from current Southampton manager Ronaldo Koeman.

He says: ‘Pep reads the game very well, he learned from Koeman who was the first player to be like a coach on the pitch. He was able to understand whatever tactical change was necessary during the game. When you are on the sidelines it is very difficult to correct the players positions on the pitch.’