Gourlay claimed the delay in confirming Di Matteo as manager was because the club wanted him to “go on holiday” rather than a failure to secure Pep Guardiola after he quit Barcelona. “So we let him [Di Matteo] go on his holiday but we were still in touch,” Gourlay said. “I spoke to Robbie on a number of occasions while he was away and we said ‘when you come back we’ll sit down and talk things through’. There was nothing more to it than that.