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Arsene Wenger vs Jose Mourinho
There’s no love lost between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, two of the most high-profile managers in European football. The pair have had numerous digs at one another over the years, with hostilities dating back to the 2004/05 campaign – the year in which the Portuguese lifted his first Premier League title with Chelsea.
Now in charge of United, it’s safe to say Mourinho still isn’t Wenger’s biggest fan – and, rest assured, the feeling’s mutual. We’ve picked out a selection of prize quips which help explain the bitterest managerial feud in Premier League history.
21. Parking the bus
"We live in a world where we have only winners and losers, but once a sport encourages teams who refuse to take the initiative, the sport is in danger."
August 2005: Wenger rails against Chelsea's tactics following a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge. That was already the second time Arsenal had lost to the Blues that season, with Mourinho’s men also emerging victorious in the Community Shield two weeks earlier.
20. Voyeur-gate
"I think he's one of those people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea. I don’t know if he wants my job – he loves Chelsea.”
October 2005: Mourinho responds after Wenger’s suggestion that “a little bit of [Chelsea’s] belief has gone” following a 1-1 draw with Everton and League Cup loss to Charlton.
19. “See you in court”
"I find it out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes.”
Wenger, unsurprisingly, didn’t take kindly to being called a “voyeur” and threatened legal action. Mourinho later backtracked, but said he would only apologise if his Arsenal counterpart did the same.
18. Mou offers Wenger out
"At Stamford Bridge, we have a file of quotes from Mr Wenger about Chelsea Football Club in the last 12 months - it is not a file of five pages, it is a file of 120 pages so we have a very strong reaction. He told very strange things about Chelsea Football Club. We have a very strong answer. I accept [this] answer being strong but it's time to stop. But if he doesn't stop we are there for a fight."
The détente didn’t last long, however, with Mourinho maintaining that Wenger has an obsession with Chelsea.
17. Spend, spend, spend
"Plenty of managers have won the Champions League who will not be considered great managers. If you would like to compare every manager, you give each one the same amount of resources and say 'You have that for five years'. After five years you see who has done the most.”
February 2007: Wenger defends his record ahead of the League Cup final, which Chelsea win as John Obi Mikel, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor are all sent off. The Frenchman doesn’t name any names, but the implication that Mourinho has been reliant on significant financial backing is clear for all to see.
16. Homegrown help
"Unlike Arsenal, we sought success and tried to build it through a concept of the game using English players. That was to have a positive effect, on the dressing room and on the press, in terms of the image that the club would project.
November 2007: Mourinho waves the Buy British flag, stating his transfer policy is very different to Wenger’s when it comes to homegrown players.
14. Trophy drought
"I'm not the person to be in a club three or four years without winning a trophy. Maybe Wenger should explain to Arsenal supporters how he cannot win a single little trophy since 2005."
2010: Asked if he’d survive at Inter if he wasn't winning silverware, Mourinho takes aim at Wenger's lack of success. Since lifting the FA Cup five years previously, Arsenal had failed to claim another trophy.
13. Sneaky suspensions
"I think there should be sanctions. I don’t want to see that. It's a pity to see that from a big club and overall it gives a bad image of our game. I must say it is the best demonstration to think 'never do that again', because it looks, frankly, horrible.”
November 2010: Wenger reacts to Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso collecting seemingly purposeful suspensions for Mourinho's Real Madrid ahead of the Champions League knockout stage.
12. Praise for players
"Instead of speaking about Real Madrid, Mr Wenger should speak about Arsenal and explain how he lost 2-0 against a team (Braga) in the Champions League for the first time. The history about the young kids is getting old now. Sagna, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas, Song, Nasri, Van Persie, Arshavin are not kids. They are all top players.”
November 2010: Mourinho has his say, implying that Wenger is the cause of Arsenal’s lack of silverware in the second half of the 2000s.
11. Does it Mata?
"Chelsea had already played twice against Man United so they don't play again anymore. They could have sold him last week but it opens up again about the dates of this transfer window. Some teams have already played twice against one opponent and some others not. I think if you want to respect the fairness for everybody, this should not happen.”
January 2014: Wenger questions Mourinho's decision to sell Juan Mata to Manchester United in the mid-season transfer window, by which stage Chelsea had already fulfilled their fixtures against the Red Devils.
9. Running scared
"It is fear to fail. Only Chelsea can lose it because they are in front. If you're not in the race you cannot lose it, if you declare yourself not in the race you cannot lose it, simple as that. Our job is to be ambitious and to try to win.”
February 2014: Wenger decries Mourinho's attempts to downplay Chelsea's title chances while openly acknowledging the fact that his own Arsenal side are in the race.
8. Packing his bags
“He is a specialist in failure, I am not. The reality is he is a specialist because eight years without a piece of silverware, that is failure. If I did that in Chelsea I would leave London and not come back.”
Mourinho responds with both barrels, once again citing Wenger’s failure to win a trophy in almost a decade.
7. Mou pleads innocence
"I do so many wrong things in football. But not this time because this time I was just in my technical area and it was not my problem. Game over. Story over.”
October 2014: Mourinho admits his behaviour isn’t always the best, but insists he did nothing wrong after the duo squared up to one another on the Stamford Bridge touchline.
5. Possession points
"This is a football pitch with two goals, one ball, but there is one team that would like to play without goals. That team plays really well and the ball goes and goes and goes and the quality of the ball possession is really beautiful, but no goals. And they ask the international board of FIFA to play like this, but they were told that it was not possible, that the bigger percentage of ball possession doesn't win matches and they were not champions.”
4. “Get a calculator”
"If you add up the amounts clubs have spent in the last three or four years maybe you will find a surprise. If you put Ozil plus Sanchez plus Chambers plus Debuchy, you will maybe find a surprise. Get a calculator. That is the easiest thing, it leaves no space for speculation.”
3. Money can’t buy you love
"We spend when we think we have to spend and do not listen to what people think or say. When we don't have the money, we don't spend the money we haven't got. I believe that one day if you make real statistics of the players we have developed here and compare them to the other clubs, you will be surprised.”
2. Feeling the pressure
“In this country, only one manager is not under pressure. Every other manager is. We cannot be below par. We have to meet the objectives. There is one outside that list, but good for him.”
“The one who can speak about the referees before the game, after the game, can push people in the technical area, can moan, can cry in the morning, in the afternoon – nothing happens. He can not achieve, keep his job, still be the king.”
In case there was any doubt, the Portuguese kindly expanded.
1. Aiming big
“There are some managers, the last time they won a title was 10 years ago, the last time I won was a year ago,” he said. “I feel I have to prove – not to the others – to myself. I will never be able to work without success. That’s my nature. If I have something to prove, imagine the others! To finish fourth is not the aim.”
July 2016: Mourinho had barely got his feet under the table at Old Trafford by the time of his first dig at Wenger as Manchester United manager. This quote came from his introductory press conference, but the rivalry has been a little subdued since then. Given the pair’s history, though, it surely won’t be long before we’re rushing to update this list.
