Mourinho dismisses Barca claims

Mourinho was left fuming when Barca vice-president Marc Ingla told Catalunya Radio the former Chelsea boss instigated a meeting with the club but that Pep Guardiola was always first choice to replace Frank Rijkaard.

"I don't want to waste time with things that don't interest me," he told Portuguese reporters. "And at the moment only Inter interests me. But Mr Ingla is lying, because he and Mr (Txiki) Begiristain asked me for a meeting in Lisbon."

Mourinho revealed that such a meeting did take place, organised by his agent, Jorge Mendes, and that Barca wanted him to be involved in their plans for the future.

However, the 45-year-old - who worked as assistant coach for four years at the Nou Camp - refused to disclose any other details.

"Let Barca work to achieve happiness, which is what I am doing at Inter," Mourinho added. "But I will not allow Ingla or anyone else to put my reputation in doubt."

However, in a bid to put an end to the situation Barcelona released an official statement on their website in which they denied that Ingla ever made the reported comments.

The statement read: "FC Barcelona regrets the comments made by Jose Mourinho contained in today's Portuguese press in which he discredits the club's vice president, Marc Ingla, and insists that a meeting in Lisbon to discuss his sporting deals was called by initiative of the club.

"Mourinho has claimed that Marc Ingla lied in a radio interview last Tuesday, when he said it was the Portuguese manager who had offered himself as a candidate to coach the club's football first team.

"FC Barcelona wish to make it clear that at no time did Marc Ingla make such a statement, as can be proved by a literal transcript of the interview."