Tony Mowbray and Paul Warne both played down their side’s respective starts to the season when sharing dinner in midweek.

Today they will swap pleasantries on the touchline, not the dinner table, as two of last season’s promoted teams aim to go in to the international break on a high.

Among the guests on their table at a north west managers function was Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola. That allowed Mowbray and Warne, affectionately known as ‘Warneiola’ by the Rotherham fans, to pick the brains of the Spaniard.

“I had a chat with him. I sat next but one to him.” the Rovers boss said, while admitting Millers boss Warne was ‘a great guy’.

“I had a little chat about his life, how he’s seeing things.

“As I said on the night, anyone who loves football should be in awe of Guardiola and what he does, how he produces teams that are breath-taking.

“He’s doing an amazing job and you can see that he loves football, and total football, and if you are a purist and love football then that’s how it should be played.

“You like to see passing, attacking, goals scored, and that’s what he brings to Manchester City.”

Mowbray shares a similar philosophy to Guardiola of how he sees the beautiful game being played.

A student of the game, the Rovers boss is an admirer of the jobs the 47-year-old has done at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

But don’t expect any type of replica of his style at Ewood Park any time soon, with Mowbray conceding the level of investment afforded Guardiola helps him to stamp his identity over whichever side he takes charge of.

However, Mowbray admits that shouldn’t take away from his achievements, with City having racked up 12 goals within the last week in wins over Southampton and Shakhtar Donetsk.

“I took my wife to Paris in 2006 to watch the Champions League final when Barcelona played Arsenal and sat in awe really of this passing machine, this pressing machine and he continues to do that at every club he’s been at” the Ewood chief added.

“That was Barcelona, he did that with Bayern Munich and he’s continuing to do it at Manchester City.

“That brand of football, I think it takes a special coach to take a team and put a completely new identity on it and an identity that wins.

“I think everyone in football should be delighted that Guardiola is here plying his trade and as a coach I can sit and watch his team score 12 goals in the last week, winning 6-1 and 6-0.

“What team has ever been able to do that? Fergie’s (Sir Alex Ferguson) team with (Ryan) Giggs and (David) Beckham, (Roy) Keane and (Paul) Scholes, they weren’t beating anyone 6-0 every week.

“I think we should enjoy him being here and as coaches learn from what he’s doing, but realistic that we can’t reproduce what he does because we don’t have three or four £50m full backs or a £100m-rated striker.”