Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho have held a long, well-documented dislike for each other
Wenger and Mourinho have never seen eye-to-eye, and will once again go head-to-head this Saturday when Manchester United host Arsenal at Old Trafford.
Mourinho was fired by Chelsea last season amid reports of mutiny in the dressing room, and this coming the season after he won the title with Chelsea.
He made his return to the Premier League this season, after being appointed by Manchester United in the summer – a union that many have longed to see since he first left Chelsea in 2007.
However, things have not gone quite to plan for Mourinho. Having spent heavily in the summer on the likes of Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mourinho was expected to hit the ground running and instantly challenge for the title. However, his team currently sits at 6th position – a whole 6 points behind 4th-placed Arsenal.
Wenger, on the other hand, has had a relatively good start to the season. The Gunners have lost just one fixture this season – the opening day defeat to Liverpool – and are currently on an impressive 16-game unbeaten run and are playing some excellent football at times.
Saturday’s game will mean a lot to both teams, with Mourinho hoping it will be the jump-start his team needs and Wenger hoping to end his hoodoo against Mourinho in the league, and ensure Arsenal don’t drop points with another loss or draw. Thierry Henry, for his part, is still unsure as to who will emerge the victor on Saturday.
Regardless of who is the victor, Wenger vs Mourinho games always have a tense air to them given the rivalry between the two, and there have been no shortage of memorable quotes exchanged between the pair over the years as a result of their obvious disdain for each other.
We’ve assembled a handy timeline of some of their best quotes about each other.
2005: “Voyeur”
It all started in 2005, when Mourinho labelled Wenger a voyeur, saying :
“I think he is one of these 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.”
This was the first time someone had insulted Wenger directly and publicly in such a manner, and it had the Arsenal manager absolutely fuming.
Wenger and Ferguson also had their fair share of verbal exchanges, but no one had personally insulted Wenger like this before.
It resulted in Wenger threatening legal action against Mourinho, although eventually he took no action.
Wenger did have some harsh words of his own for Mourinho, however, later saying in November 2005 :
“He’s out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.”
2007: “Arsene Wenger has only 50 per cent of wins”
The pair were at it again when, in 2007, Wenger said that in order to judge managers fairly they all needed to be given the same resources. Wenger said :
“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.”
Mourinho took this as a personal insult and responded by citing the lack of English players in Wenger’s team at the time. Mourinho said :
“Unlike Arsenal, we sought success and tried to build it through a concept of the game using English players.”
Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea not long after, and couldn’t resist another dig at Wenger even though he was no longer a direct rival :
“The English like statistics a lot. Do they know that Arsene Wenger has only 50 per cent of wins in the English league?”
2010: “Pity to see that from a big club”
The pair would clash once again, when during a Champions League tie against Ajax. Jose Mourinho was seen blatantly instructing Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos to pick up bookings in order to miss a comfortable second leg against the Turkish team, so they would have clean slates for the later stages of the tournament.
Wenger saw this as an affront to the ethics of football, and had this to say about the matter :
“When you see how it looks on television, it is the best demonstration to think: ‘Never do that again’. It looks, frankly, horrible. It’s a pity to see that from a big club.”
Mourinho once again chose to respond by questioning Arsene Wenger’s abilities as a manager, saying his loss was more embarrassing than what Mourinho had done :
“Instead of speaking about Real Madrid, Mr Wenger should speak about Arsenal and explain how he lost 2-0 against a team 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.”
2014: “Specialist in failure”
When Mourinho returned to Chelsea for his second spell, it seemed as though there was a chance the two managers would put history aside and maintain a cordial relationship. Neither had a bad word to say about the other, until Wenger was unhappy with the sale of Juan Mata to Manchester United.
Having already played United twice that season, Mourinho sanctioned the sale of Mata to United. Wenger deemed this unfair on the competition, and had this to say :
“Chelsea have already played twice against Man United, they could have sold him last week. I think if you want to respect the fairness for everybody, this should not happen.”
Mourinho responded by saying Arsenal were given preferential treatment in terms of fixtures, and that Wenger was always complaining so it didn’t surprise him :
“Wenger complaining is normal because he always does. It’s something that we know. Normally, he should be very happy that Chelsea sold a player like Juan Mata. But I think it’s also a bit of his nature. We have to accept the way he is.But when he says that this is not fair, I think what is not fair is that his team always has the best days to play. Always. Always.”
Just a few weeks later, in February 2014, Wenger was asked why some of his title rivals – not Mourinho specifically – were keen to downplay their title ambitions. Wenger was clearly not talking about Mourinho when he said that it was down to a “fear of failure”
Mourinho responded with what will probably go down as the most memorable quote between the pair, and the gloves were off. Mourinho said :
“If he is right and I am afraid of failure it is because I didn’t fail many times. Eight years without silverware, that’s failure. He’s a specialist in failure. If I do that in Chelsea, eight years, I leave and don’t come back.”
This culminated in a physical altercation between the pair, when Wenger pushed Mourinho after the latter was seen pointing at Wenger and asking him to sit down. Here’s a video of the incident :
Wenger did regret the incident afterwards, but hinted that he had been provoked by Mourinho :
“In hindsight I think I should not have reacted at all. It’s not a way to behave on a football field. Did Mourinho provoke me? That is how I felt. I did not enter Chelsea’s technical area.”
Mourinho again felt that the Arsenal manager was being afforded preferential treatment, given that Mourinho himself has been censured by the FA several times for his behaviour. Mourinho had this to say about the incident :
“I’m not surprised, I’m not surprised. (Me) charged? Charged? If it was me it would have been a stadium ban.”
2015: “It is easy to defend”
In April 2015, Arsene Wenger once again questioned Mourinho’s playing style and tactics, saying simply :
“It is easy to defend”
This time, Mourinho definitely got the upper hand on his French nemesis, with a scathing response. Arsenal had just suffered an embarrassing exit to Monaco in the Champions League, and Mourinho had this to say :
“It’s not easy. If it was easy, you wouldn’t lose 3-1 at home to Monaco.”
Later in the year, Diego Costa was retrospectively banned after clearly lashing out at Laurent Koscielny with his arms and hands. This seemed to push Mourinho over the edge, and he launched an astonishing attack on Arsene Wenger :
“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. You know who.
“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 the rule book it says some managers can speak about the referees before and after games. Some others cannot. I am in the list of those who are punished if they speak about the referees.”
Coincidentially, Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea not long after. Wenger did not kick the Portugese manager when he was down though, saying he never liked to see anyone lose their job.
Wenger and Mourinho have clearly had lots to say about one another over the years, and despite what either may say in public it is clear to anyone that the two have a genuine dislike for each other.
Just take a look at this video, and it is not hard to see what is going on.
This season, not too much has been said about the other but that is because they are yet to face each other.
Tomorrow promises to be a fantastic game, and some are even eagerly awaiting the press conferences as much as the game itself.
Whatever happens, this is definitely not going to be the last time the two spit fire at each other, and both will be hoping to get one over on the other tomorrow.
