Jose Mourinho says he understands why his name does not appear in Arsene Wenger’s autobiography My Life in Red and White, which was recently launched.
Mourinho and Wenger shared an explosive and bitter rivalry, especially in the years when the Portuguese first arrived at Chelsea in 2004.
Wenger’s Arsenal were the best team in the country, having just created history by winning the Premier League title unbeaten in the 2003/2004 season.
Mourinho took the title from Arsenal in his first season to make Chelsea champions for the first time in 50 years and made a habit of flinging insults in the direction of Wenger as his team dominated for two years.
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When he returned for a second spell at Stamford Bridge in 2013, he liked to remark how Wenger enjoyed the safest job in football, even though his team did not win trophies any more.
Mourinho dubbed him a ‘specialist in failure’ and his Chelsea team beat Arsenal 6-0 to wreck Wenger’s 1,000th match in charge of the club he served for 22 years.
The animosity thawed slightly in their later years.
Wenger left Arsenal in 2018 and is now employed by FIFA and has just released his first book.
And when asked why he didn’t feature in Wenger’s new book, Mourinho said:”It’s because he never beat me.
“You are not going to do a chapter about 12 or 14 matches when you never win one. Why should he speak about me in his book?
“A book is a thing to make you happy and make you proud so I understand perfectly the situation.”
While Mourinho enjoyed some dominant years against Wenger, with nine wins and seven draws, Wenger has in fact enjoyed two wins over him – once in 2015 as Arsenal beat Chelsea in the Community Shield.
He then secured his first competitive victory against a Mourinho side as he beat Mourinho’s Manchester United 2-0 at the Emirates in 2017, ending a 13-year wait.
3 Comments
Lol… Funny guy
Mourinho is an expert at mind games. The guy will annoy you, get right under your skin, use words to completely destabilize you. The whole objective is to throw you off your game. That is why Mourinho often said that as far as he is concerned, matches begin in the pre-match press conference. Mourinho would throw the kitchen sink at opponents, and it usually worked. Mourinho sought to score a psychological victory in the presser, which invariably translates into a victory on the pitch later on. It is tough to be at your best as a manager, when you are angry and bothered by your opponent manager. Unlike Wenger, Alex Ferguson seemed to cope much better with the Mourinho mind games. Against a coach as provocative as Mourinho, you need to be calm, calculated and resolute.
Mourinho is running away from the truth. It’s not because of win and loss games. Arsene Wenger loss many games to different clubs, Man United, Man City, Barca,Bayern Munich etc. Mourinho is not a well brought up person by his parent. Insulting his elders. No respect for anyone, even his betters. Arsene Wenger is a well brought person and respects others. A person like Mourinho can never be included in a book written by me and for me if I receive such insult from my junior. If I write that he is insultive and disrespectful, I will not be doing Mourinho well. It mean the coming young one will read the bad report. So he should be happy and grateful to Arsene Wenger that he is not mentioned. He insulted everyone that is a rival. Even Sir Alex Ferguson, Moyes, etc and these are his elders in age and professionally.
I suppose Arsene Wenger in this. FIFA or EUFA can never employ Mourinho but Arsene has been employed, Alex Ferguson is a professor of football and a consultant to Man United.