But, according to the Arsenal boss, the pair could have been sharing a dressing-room had Guardiola got the move to north London he was after during his playing career.
"He wanted to play with me as a coach," Wenger said at his pre-match press conference in Germany. "He wanted to play for Arsenal. I met him, he was 30-31 back then.
"I can't really remember, after that he went to Italy and I had players like Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit who were still young and played for the national team as well."
Guardiola came through the youth system at Barcelona and spent more than a decade there as a deep-lying midfielder.
He left for Serie A side Brescia on a free transfer in 2001 and went on to play for Roma before spells in Qatar and Mexico.
Wenger said of Guardiola the manager: "What I admire is that his team are very positive, very attacking.
"He has a positive mentality and a positive attitude towards football. That is why he adapted very well to Bayern - he is a great coach."
Liverpool winger Jordon Ibe says he feels 'like a new player' as he adapts to life under Jurgen Klopp.
The former Borussia Dortmund coach has set about restoring the players self belief as he gets used to life on Merseyside and the 3-1 win at Chelsea shows the new approach is working, according to Ibe.
He told the Liverpool website: "It was one of the most important things the new manager has said - we need to be a team who can be 2-0 down and know there is still time for us to get a goal.
Football journalism tends to be a pretty cynical world and it’s not often you hear an intake of breath from an entire press room. But a little over an hour before Manchester City kicked off against Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League last year, the hubbub inside the Etihad was replaced by a brief
and disbelieving silence.
We looked at the team and we looked again. But it was true; City were taking on Barca, whose midfield had probably been the best in Europe for six or seven years, with a 4-4-2.
It was a plan so contrary to the received wisdom that, after the initial shock, there was a brief thought that such radicalism might be genius. The Spanish side had looked suspect at the back in recent weeks and their centre-backs rarely had to deal with a strike pairing, while David Silva and Samir Nasri were typical wide men as they liked to drift into more central roles to bolster the holding midfielders.
It didn’t, however, take long for the reality to become apparent.
The visitors took control of midfield and, with Lionel Messi dazzling, City were lucky to be only 2-0 down at half-time. Fernandinho’s introduction for Nasri just after the hour made City more competitive in midfield and they pulled one back, only for the dismissal of Gael Clichy to end their resurgence. It’s safe to assume that Manuel Pellegrini will not make the same mistake again.
One of the more mysterious features of the Champions League over the past four seasons has been the repeated failure of City: two group-stage exits and then defeat in the last 16 in the past two seasons. The suggestion that it is all down to a lack of experience in the competition only washes as far as City’s coefficient – which, because of the way they were suddenly propelled to super-club status by Sheikh Mansoor’s investment, is lower than that of equivalent clubs and has therefore made a harder draw more likely.
Under Pellegrini, there has at least been a tactical explanation. He has taken charge of 16 Champions League games with City, and in nine of them he has played with two strikers. It’s a trait that was becoming increasingly puzzling.
Now that’s not to say that there’s inherently anything wrong with 4-4-2.
As England manager Roy Hodgson has pointed out, most formations revert to two banks of four when out of possession.
The problem has been that the players City have had at the back of the midfield haven’t offered sufficient protection to the back four. This at least in part explains why Vincent Kompany looked so out of sorts last season, as he was repeatedly lured forward to try to win the ball in the space that should have been occupied by one of the defensive midfielders.
Apportioning blame when the failure was systemic isn’t easy and probably isn’t fair, but the questions about Yaya Toure last season were reasonable. Was his application lacking or was it just that, at 32, he no longer has the stamina to get up and down the pitch as he used to?
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is backing captain Vincent Kompany to return to his best this season.
The usually dependable Kompany endured an indifferent campaign as City finished a distant second to Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League last term.
City conceded an average of a goal a game and Pellegrini wants to see improvement this time around, and he is confident the experienced Kompany will lead the way.
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A collapsing wall at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels before the start of the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool on May 29, 1985 caused 39 deaths and over 600 injuries.
The match went ahead and Platini, then a Juventus midfielder, scored his side's winner from the penalty spot - but his memories of the night are overwhelmed by the pre-match tragedy.
In a statement released on UEFA's website on Friday morning, Platini wrote: "Thirty years ago, I played in a European Champion Clubs' Cup final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. And I continue to play in that final.
"It hasn't left me, just like it hasn't left anyone else who was there that night, and remains with all those who lost a loved one, for whom everything changed in a few terrible minutes.
"Thirty years later, I am the president of UEFA, the organisation that organised the match, and I am working every day with all my colleagues and friends at the national associations, leagues and clubs to ensure that we will never again experience the horror of such a night.
"We have been working unceasingly for the last 30 years to guarantee safety and security at sporting venues across Europe.
"On the 30th anniversary of that fateful night, my thoughts are with the 39 people who lost their lives and, of course, with their friends and families. I can only express my deepest sympathy and reiterate that I am still doing everything in my power to prevent such a tragedy from happening again."
Survivors and relatives of the victims marked the anniversary at the King Baudouin Stadium, which was renovated and renamed after the tragedy, by laying flowers and wreaths as a remembrance.
Juventus are holding an evening mass as a tribute at Turin's Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio Church, while Liverpool held an early-morning memorial service at Anfield.
Phil Neal, Liverpool's captain at the time of the disaster, laid a floral tribute at the foot of the Heysel memorial plaque in the Centenary Stand.
Neal said: "It was an honour for me to lay a wreath at the Heysel memorial in remembrance of those who lost their lives.
"What happened at Heysel will always be with me and everybody else who was there on that terrible day - we will never forget."
Juve's sporting director Gianluca Pessotto and former player Massimo Bonini laid 39 white lilies at Anfield, one for each life lost.
Ian Rush, who was part of Liverpool's team in the final and also played for Juventus during his career, reciprocated by representing the Reds in Turin.
Referee Michael Oliver proved to be the influential figure in a pulsating first half at the Emirates Stadium as he turned down no more than four penalty claims between the two sides.
Oscar was involved on two occasions as Hector Bellerin and David Ospina brought the Brazilian down in the area, before former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas was booked for simulation and Gary Cahill was adjudged to have not blocked Santi Cazorla’s shot with his arm.
Didier Drogba replaced Oscar at the interval after the midfielder showed signs of concussion following his collision with Ospina, but he did little to ignite a Chelsea side who seemed content with a point.
Mesut Ozil and substitute Danny Welbeck spurned glorious chances in the closing stages to hand Arsene Wenger his first victory over a side managed by Jose Mourinho, but Chelsea held on to end Arsenal’s eight-game winning run to move to within six points of their first title in five years.
They will now clinch the title if they follow victory at in-form Leicester City on Wednesday with three points against Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge next Sunday.
Arsenal entered the match knowing anything other than a victory would end their faint hopes of a first title since 2004, and Wenger made four changes to the side which sealed their place in the FA Cup final last weekend.
Chelsea knew victory would hand them the chance to seal with title with victory at Leicester in midweek, and started the game with no recognised striker, as Drogba was dropped to the bench with Eden Hazard leading the attack as the lone front man.
The change of personnel did little to prevent a frenetic start to the game as both sides pushed for the advantage before a string of penalty incidents followed.
Oscar appeared to have his heels clipped by full-back Bellerin on eight minutes as the Brazilian threatened to get in behind the Arsenal defence, but Oliver was unmoved.
Oscar was involved again on 16 minutes when Arsenal ‘keeper Ospina collided with him after he was played through by Fabregas and chipped an effort towards goal. Bellerin cleared the goal-bound effort before play resumed after the Brazilian received treatment for his injuries.
Replays suggested the penalty kick and a red card may well have been warranted by Ospina's rash challenge.
'Nobody overtakes Manchester United by offering a helping hand,' wrote the Daily Mail's Martin Samuel in a bizarre rant about Tottenham's proposed transfer policy earlier this month. The alleged plan? To buy players in the £10-15m price bracket with a view to re-sale value; sensible transfer policy is clearly something to be derided.
Having tried buying wildly expensive players who are now worth considerably less (2013), and then cheaper players who are magically still worth marginally less (2014), they are apparently settling on middle ground in 2015 that should give Tottenham a) half a chance of finishing in the top four and b) every chance of balancing the books. When flirtations with the policy have brought in Christian Eriksen, Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen - all now worth more than their original cost - you can see why Daniel Levy wants to make the permanent switch.
In all the fuss about Manchester City's disastrous recent transfers and Liverpool's patchwork summer business, little has been said about the mistakes made at Tottenham. Keen not to repeat the nightmare of 2013 that left them saddled with the Bootleg Beatles - Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Paulinho and Ringo - Tottenham instead spent less than £23m on half a team who have barely played a full season's Premier League games in total.
Eric Dier's 19 top-flight starts make him the most settled of a list of incoming players completed by Fazio (14), Ben Davies (8), Benjamin Stambouli (4), Michel Vorm (2) and DeAndre Yedlin (0). It's a sorry list of unproven footballers who all cost less than £10m and are now all still worth less than £10m. There were greater ambitions but moves to sign more accomplished players like Danny Welbeck and Morgan Schneiderlin floundered in the face of high-profile competition and prohibitively high prices.
Tweaking rather than overhauling the squad left by Franco Baldini's blunderbuss was certainly worth one season's cheap experiment, the theory being that a new, focused manager could unleash the potential of those who struggled under Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood. There were early signs that Etienne Capoue, Lamela and Nacer Chadli could be coaxed into something close to their pre-Tottenham form, but Mauricio Pochettino has eventually skidded into the same brick wall encountered by his predecessors. The problem was clearly not with the management.
Pochettino has not been short of numbers - Yedlin became the 27th Tottenham player to play in the Premier League this season - but he is massively short on quality. "A bigger squad? No. Not bigger. Maybe different," he said at the weekend when asked about his plans for next season. Very diplomatic.
Real Madrid had not scored nine goals in a league game since the 1967/68 season.
Real Madrid fans are currently enjoying one of the most devastating attacks in the club's entire history. The 9-1 against Granada is yet another example of it. You have to go back to 1967/68 in order to find the last game where the Whites scored as many goals.
That season Real Madrid beat Real Sociedad by 9-1. The goals came from Velázquez, who scored a hat-trick; Amancio and Pirri, with a brace each; Bueno and Miguel Pérez.
Third largest Madrid thrashing
This weekend, Real Madrid scored nine goals in a La Liga game for the fifth time in their history. In addition to the previously mentioned win against Real Sociedad, they also achieved it in 1941 against Castellón (9-1), in 1959 against Las Palmas (10-1) and against Elche (11-2) in 1960. Their last win constitutes the third largest thrashing handed out by Madrid in the history of the league.
