We all know that the managers of Arsenal and Chelsea do not exactly get on and it is more than just the sort of professional rivalry that Arsene Wenger has had with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Harry Redknapp and others since taking over as manager nearly 20 years ago.
And now, after the two had that bad tempered pushing exchange at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season, Jose Mourinho has started again, talking about Wenger and Arsenal as he sat in the Sky Sports Goals On Sunday show. As reported by ESPN, the arrogant one just could not restrict himself to talking about things that concerned him, and had to get in a few digs at his rival.
Mourinho said, “I do not understand why they [Arsenal] are not where we are with Man City.
“He has a dream job. I think every manager in the world would like to have the stability he has. Year after year after year, he has the chance to buy, to sell, to rebuild, to wait for success and wait and wait.
“What he did with the club in a certain period gave him that credibility, that he deserves because he is a fantastic manager but he also had a fantastic situation to be successful.
“When I look at the players and I look at the squad, I really think they have to win.
“I like that team very much, they have very good players. Alexis [Sanchez] and [Danny] Welbeck are important players to add to an already very good squad.”
Did Mourinho not once call Wenger a voyeur after the Frenchman said something about his precious Chelsea team? So why does he feel the need to talk about Arsenal?
And the suggestion that he would have been happy to show the same loyalty that Wenger has while having to compete with the teams around you on a much smaller budget as well as having to sell your best stars, is quite frankly laughable and typical of the outrageous hypocrisy the Portuguese coach continues to show.
Healso seems to have convinced himself that he came back to Chelsea because he had been supremely successful and done everything with Inter Milan and Real Madrid, whereas I seem to recall him being pushed out of Madrid because he failed to stop the dominance of Barcelona, failed to bring them the 10th European cup and fell out with the Spanish media and half of the players and staff at his own club.
Maybe he is unhappy that his specialist in failure jibe last season did nothing but make people slate him for disrespect and support Wenger, especially after he and his team finished the season empty handed and Arsenal got the FA cup. And as for why Arsenal are not challenging for the title this year I would point out that, just like last season, we have had a crippling and ongoing injury crisis, while he has had a fully fit squad almost every week.
Finally, just to highlight his bias against Wenger, he also praised the Man United boss Luis van Gaal despite them now being below us in the table and having splashed out a fortune in the summer. Oh please let Man City catch them up and make this obnoxious git have another trophy free season. I might even be tempted to prefer the spuds in the cup final next week and that can’t be right.
People will always say Wenger hasn’t won anything for years before our latest FA Cup triumph… The real fans know the reasons behind it…
Honestly I think Mourinho wishes he was or even in Wenger’s shoes, but he’s just too prideful to say it… Lol
seeing as hes won more titles than wenger . an the champions league twice with two teams who were below arsenals level- i doubt he wishes he was wenger.
maybe abit envious of the clubs loyalty to wenger.
maybe when u rebuild a club like wenger did u will get same.
Good perspective
Yardie,
Jose is a winner cuz he gets big $$, he wins then he gets FIRED. Why?
He is a bitter jealous man that will wear out his welcome in three seasons or less. Jose is the man that poked a cancer patient in the eye(Tito Vilanova)
He is so jealous of Wenger that his balls tingle. Jose cannot understand why Wenger is loved and respected. Jose has results but no love. Jose is a bitter unlovable man that lashes out at anyone.
I will bet you that when Arsenal wins a Cup or CL this year that the first thing Jose says is NOT congratulations but “at Chelsea I won more”. Everything has to be about him, he instills paranoia in in his club; everyone is against them.
In simpler words Jose is a total c*nt.
I like that
He won the CL with smaller clubs yes, but not with inferior teams. Inferior to the Invincibles of course, but very few teams aren’t. Just look at the players he had at Porto and Inter. Wenger’s biggest failing is not winning the CL between 2000 and 2005. You need that little bit of luck to win the CL, and it seems Wenger didn’t have it, especially in ’06!
Compared to how SAF and Wenger won theirs, it’s not as prestigious. He has yet to stay at a club for more than 3 seasons and build a legacy, which all the legendary managers have accomplished. Every club Mourinho has left ended up in a desperate state. Chelsea’s firing 9 managers, Inter going bankrupt, RM losing their credibility, Porto never the same. So explain how Mourinho isn’t envious of Wenger and SAF ? EPL is the best league in the world, it’s only logical that he wants to be better than the best managers to have managed in the best league.
I don’t like this notion of “real fans”, so if I think Wenger underachieved in the last decade you’re gonna label me a fake fan just because I don’t see it how you do?
Seems like a childish statement if you ask me. And for the record, Ido think we’ve underachieved this past decade.
Answer this then: Do you think there is a strong correlation between spending levels and success? What do you think Mourinho’s record would look like at Chelsea if he had spent a net zero?
How does Mourinho’s record have any bearing on my opinion of Wenger’s last decade in charge? You really do ask some strangely irrelevant questions.
I didn’t comment on the ‘Mourinho vs Wenger’ title of this article, I responded to how some fans think they get to brandish others as “fake” because they share different views on our relative success the last 10 years.
To answer your absurd question, yes money does correlate with success. However savvy management and smart tactics can make decent teams into great ones. People love the “we had no money” argument for the last decade, but you forget the calibre of player we had at the club (RVP, Ade, Eduardo, Fab, Nasri, Song etc). AND the calibre of player we rejected for pittance from Ligue 1 (Wengers ace up the sleeve) such as cabaye(5m), sissoko(2.5m), Lloris(10m).
Yes we were given quite a task to usurp United, Chelsea, and an emerging City. But don’t dare tell me no trophy in almost a decade is justified by having less cash. In Wengers first 8 trophy winning years we never spent more than 13mil on a player, so to suggest we’ve needed vast sums of money to compete is just ignoring everything we are as a football club. We have been the pioneers of finding young talent and nurturing it, finding lesser knowns and watching them thrive in our team.
Fact is we haven’t developed our tactics until this year, haven’t addressed the fitness model of the club which is negligent, and in that time ‘the rest’ have taken our pioneering model and ran with it to close the gap on us. Sorry, but while I appreciate our consistency, the argument for the last 10 years being an amazing achievement is just total nonsense. It has been slightly above average, which is not the standard expected from a club with Arsenals history.
Mourinho is a good manager but a horrendous human being. No decency. He believes his accomplishments give him the right to insult People. Mourinho has insulted Wenger many times.
That’s why I get a sick pleasure when things don’t go his way like Saturday
Lets Win FA Cup and Champions League. That’s the best way of getting back at him.
COYG
FA Cup maybe….
but Champs leagues impossible…we will never be able to beat the might Barca and Real with our current squad
The Million Dollar question to every Fan is…..how would it feel to win Trophies having an Ass like MAUREEN as Manager or settle by being an above average team maybe even a good team with a Manager that nobody questions his love for this Club, but with no hopes of winning any of the Big Trophies….nothing against WENGER at least not anymore, but let’s be real he lost his touch….I believe at the end we all want our Club to win to be the elite of Europe as we should be, so realistically we would go with the first choice, I mean the Assss
@fred
hes not a horrendous human being..steady on.
who did he murder?. jose is just a pain in the arse.
he winds people up an plays mind games to win. alot of champions are no different.
need to chill. its only football.
think we dont have the right manager to win champions league.
players? look at porto/inter when mourinho managed-
we have the players,
dont need galaticos, athletico were 1 min away from dominating europe last year
Jose is the man that poked a cancer patient (Tito Vilanova) in the eye.
That makes him a total dirtbag. He should have been banned for life.
Yeah he’s a horrible person.
Did anyone see MOTD? Creepy to watch 2 retired thugs backing Mourinho…the most poisoned thing to happen to football – (and his poisoned team) Jose walks out of an interview and suddenly they’re falling over themselves to suck up to him. Shearer is world class bore, and Savage is as good as a pundit as he was as a player. Awful
Even when Mourinho is being ‘nice’ it’s all about getting attention himself. Hate how the English media suck up to him.
Read somewhere that Wenger is and will go down as one of the best managers in the world and rightfully so. If some could stop being short sighted for a little and see what this man has done for our club you will then realize. Players come because of him, we kept playing CL because of him, we have a 5 star stadium because of him, need I not mention the only manager to date to go a complete season undefeated, I mean the list goes on for the positives. We been through rough times and he’s seen us through and it will only get better from here trust me. His replacement has HUGE shoes to fill and that’s a reality. There are great coaches out there that have great success to their resumes but it takes a true manager to do what Wenger did and is doing. Players love him past and present, even the ones we classify as mercenaries. I strongly believe it’s onwards and upwards from here.
Oh and by the way I’m neither a AKB or AOB, just a fan of the greatest club I’ve grown to love like I love my family…
u are still living in denial…….
Whats is it based on? 10 years 1 trophy and best manager?
poor signings, poor tactics, poor player selections and refuse to spend ….thats what great coach should be
I don’t mind your bland ramblings normally and I’ll let you have your way on all the above bar the most important point – money. Refusal to spend and little or no money to spend are very, very different my friend. Are you saying Wenger has had hundreds of millions dangled in front of him by the board and he has flatly refused to spend? Because if you are you then sorry but you are talking out of the wrong orifice.
@ some point we all need to agree with Hafiz….let’s forget WENGERS faults for a second which are undeniable…..with our current team we could do better…how many teams not only on the EPL but in Europe would dream to have either SANCHEZ or OZIL we have them BOTH, even WELBECK, he needs to be in the front, he has the skill to beat any defender, what is he doing instead in the back lines guarding posts with OSPINA, the first half he makes the runs and counters, but on the second he is done by half time.
it’s true that we are doing unbelievably well considering our Poor performances lately…. but with proper direction we could be doing better and not just waiting bad results from SOTON, SPUDS or MANURE to climb on the table.
Wah gwaan bredda
Yeah yeah mi deh yah bredren, yu dun know a Arsenal fi life…
Then let’s get the hardest trophy to win besides the World Cup – Champions League.
Even Ronaldo de Lima never won the champions league but Dmitri Alenichev [oh, you don’t know him? lol] won it, Madrid spent roughly half a billion Euros [same as the cost of building the Emirates] in pursuit of La Decima for SO MANY years while Barcelona spent almost nothing on Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, the chief actors of their dominant years…my point? It has never really been about how much you spend or how much of a genius you are, it takes sustained competitiveness at the highest level and/or that extra bit of luck to have a shot at it hence my [previous] happiness at being in the top four [lots of clubs would do almost anything to get in that league], however even that can get stale, to be realistic, I think progress would be aiming for the top two now, enough of these top four stories, it ran its course now we need to aim higher, when the top two is our priority, it becomes inevitable that whoever might be in front of us is bound to slip up on a few occasions ala Bayern and Dortmund, we should now set our sights on the top four of the champions league lol
I’ve always liked this saying. Mourinho is a coach, Wenger is a manager. Wenger can truly build clubs while also bringing some success and an identity to the club, while Mourinho just does whatever it takes to win, and is usually successful, though he needs an established team already. both great managers no doubt, but have two polar different philosophies and will never get along.
If you were a player, based on manager alone, which club would you sign for in the summer, Arsenal or Chelsea?
I believe it would depend on what stage of career the player is at. If its a young player looking to develop, then Arsenal and Wenger are undoubtedly the better option. I believe every player who has had the desire to work hard has generally improved under Wenger. Just look at Giroud for example. His finishing, hold up play and runs all have improved since coming here.
If you are an established star looking for a pay-rise and some quick trophies and medals to your name, Mourinho is your guy.
I believe Jose is a better tactician undoubtedly. He uses whatever strategy it takes to win. Wenger in the other hand is very stubborn that Arsenal have to play very pretty and attractive football at all times. It has cost us victory on many ocassions.
Whether Wenger is successful is all down to expectations of the fans. If you’re consistently happy with 4th each year, well Wenger could be the best manager we’ve ever had. But for me that is not enough. I’m not being unreasonable and expect a title every year, but at least be challenging seriously for it. As things stand, we’re miles behind first spot and scraping for 4th (again).
Im predicting a lot of thumbs down here as I’m maintaining my view of Wenger out, built up from years of trophyless frustration. A couple of good months does not erase years of underachievement. Until he is capable of maintaining a serious title challenge, i’m not changing my mind. I noticed a lot of fans here too converting back and forth with every win or loss. Please guys, stop being fickle, take a stand and stick to it until there’s change.
Fair comment, but you also have to look at where Arsenal were before Wenger. We weren’t serial title challengers, far from it in fact. The expectation of all these trophies and titles is largely because of all the success Wenger himself had, he’s become a victim of it in a sense.
You have to take into account the context as well. How many clubs have spent millions more than us, hundreds of millions in fact, whilst we’ve been laden with the debt of a new stadium? We may not have challenged for the title, but maintaining champions league football for all those years is a fantastic achievement, especially given the spending of all the clubs trying to get above us.
A common argument – what’s the point of being in the champions league if you’re not going to win it? I guess that’s a fair point, but being in the champions league allows us to attract top talent, like Alexis and Özil, so that we can build a team that is capable of winning it, not to mention the financial advantages and the prestige it carries.
Wenger may not have won titles for 10 years, but what he has done is built a new platform for success. Only mega-spending clubs are winning the title these days, now we’re able to become one of them. But now that we have the money, my expectations are higher. I expect a serious title challenge next season. Target: a minimum of 80 points.
Good argument Mick. I can somewhat overlook the 2006-2012 period needed to pay off stadium debt, but ever since the 2012-2013 season we should really be doing better than 4th given our spending. We’re forever 1 or 2 players short of a title push sometimes it makes me wonder if we’ll ever challenge. We complain about our clubs spending, but we’ll actually spending at a similar level, and surprisingly more than Chelsea, in the past 2-3 seasons.
We actually had a really decent team for 2010-2011. The trio of fabregas, van persie and nasri should be good enough to at least challenge for the title, but we finished 4th again, a full 12 points behind United. Maybe its not just about financial constraints you know. Maybe its more down to the fact that Wenger is no longer good enough to win the league in modern times
Maybe is it because we have a core of players now that when healthy can win anything.
I was fan before Wenger came. We old asses love the changes he brought to Arsenal.
Maybe you guys started watching in the Henry era, but we know that he lifted us up from ordinary into SPECIAL without ONE pound of OIL money.
You’re actually right. I started following football and supporting Arsenal in 2005, so you can imagine my frustrations as a fan. Being too young at that time, I obviously don’t have first hand experience of Wenger’s achievements prior to the Invincibles, but times have change and we’ve got to accept oil clubs being part and parcel of the game. Fergie adapted and continue winning titles in spite of the Chelseas and Citys, Wenger didn’t. Maybe Wenger’s methods work well in the past, but times have changed and even the best needs to adapt to stay on top.
It’s good to see that there are still Arsenal fans out here with logic. Agreed with everything you mentioned. Wenger was a victim of his own success. Comparing our current squad to the one we had 5 years ago, I honestly can’t believe why people expected us to win trophies lol. RVP and Fabregas alone weren’t enough. Barca, Bayern, Chelsea all had at least 5 world class players in their teams.
the House of Rahman still feels that its time for a change…
new manager, new management, new players, new team and new target!!!!
You know Hafiz, respectfully I will agree that we should not be afraid of change but there’s no denying Wenger has set our club up for success, even if it means for someone else to come and reap the benefits… I’m sorry I have to give respect where it is due and Wenger deserves respect regardless of our results…
Oh and PS, he already has a statue outside. Hell of a category to fall in to have 1 erected of him don’t you think?
I suggest you get a new team to support
I like the point you made about his Real Madrid situation. I really think because he got booted outta Madrid hella hard, he feels like he has to rekindle his career success with Chelsea like he had back with Inter and Porto. To do so, he’s been playing the blame game – anyone besides himself and/or his squad.
Anyway, his mouth is always spewing sh*t and will continue to spew sh*t as long as he’s around. The only way to shut him up is to win games especially against him. So come on Wenger. Come on you Gunners. Let’s hand it to him.
Dortmund have gone from bottom of the table to 11th place, just 10 points off the Champions League spots with 16 games left to play… Surely not?
If there was another team I would cheer on it’s Dortmund. Something about Klopp that attracts me, maybe it’s his moments of temporary insanity. LOL
! Dude, I love Dortmund and their fans, the attitude.
I almost don’t want Arsenal to raid for one of their best players and send them further down the Bundesliga
I see Dortmund as the Arsenal of the bundesliga…
This idiot won’t ever get, he makes it sound like Wenger’s position was attained on a platter.
I don’t care what anybody says, on a level playing field ,Wenger would smoke his butt
Look at Mancity they didn’t win Jack for decades stacked upon each other but fast forward some shieks later boom. No hating it’s just the way modern football works.So the moaning one needs to understand that to whom much is given much is expected. Wenger earned his stability. Which, even with everything he’s done is sometimes under threat. You get Hundreds of million so if you sleep on your laurels, you get the boot.Simple.
Looking forward to Wednesday now, can’t come fast enough… Lol
I have enjoyed most of the comments particularly the one which compared Wenger’s managerial skills with Mourinho’s. Indeed I made a similar observation sometime back that Mourinho is a coach and Wenger is a manager. This is what it actually is. A manager looks to everything about the enterprise to ensure it is functioning efficiently in all spheres. A coach on the other hand is someone whose job is almost confined to the pitch and rarely has time nor appreciates anything outside the pitch. He is a trainer and not somebody concerned with other issues not related to training. Mourinho is a simplistic fellow who should be forgiven rather than disparaged for his antics. He is incapable of being above cheap gimmicks! That is what he has known all his life. He cannot all of a sudden change his ways. Ever heard of a saying that a leopard can never change his spots? My only prayer is that, much as I detest it, Man City overtakes him and reclaims the EPL trophy. This will not only make him quiet, it as well could signal his end as Chelsea coach.