An excerpt from Robert Beasley's book... I've highlighted the key quotes from Mourinho about Wenger in bold and underlined them: When you publicly denounce someone as a 'specialist in failure' and a 'voyeur', it is abundantly clear you don't like them much. What must Jose Mourinho's views on Arsene Wenger be like away from the cameras and microphones? Unsurprisingly, they're even more damning and the gloves have been well and truly off whenever the matter of Monsieur Wenger has been raised. A couple of times Jose even talked about wanting to physically fight the Frenchman. That's how bitter and basic their rivalry has become over the years. It's a deep dislike that has festered into one of the longest-running feuds in football, with the pair clashing ever since Mourinho first arrived in England in 2004. Relations have deteriorated steadily since then and now both men find it impossible to hide their scorn. In the summer of 2013 Mourinho returned to the Premier League with Chelsea, once again becoming a direct rival of the Arsenal boss. It didn't take long for hostilities to be renewed. The following January Wenger spoke out about Chelsea's plans to sell star midfielder Juan Mata to Manchester United for £37million. Asked if he was surprised at the move, Wenger replied: 'Yes I am, because they sell a great player to a direct opponent.' He then made the point that Chelsea had already played United twice that season so Mata could not hurt them but his quality could hurt teams like Arsenal who had only played United once. 'It opens up again questions about the dates of this transfer window,' said Wenger. Mourinho saw this as yet more evidence of Wenger's obsession with all things Chelsea but for once he bit his tongue. That all changed the following month. Wenger had made a thinly disguised dig about Mourinho deliberately playing down Chelsea's chances of being crowned champions because of a 'fear to fail'. It was too much for the ultra-competitive Mourinho to resist, so when he was asked about Wenger's comments he let fly. 'You know, he is a specialist in failure. Eight years without a piece of silverware, that's failure. If I do that at Chelsea I leave London and I don't come back.' Mourinho had carried out a cold-blooded assassination of his enemy in broad daylight. Inevitably it was too gory for some, who believed Jose's brutal honesty was too vicious and vindictive. Not to him it wasn't. A few days later he was still pumped up about it all, telling me: 'When Mr Wenger criticises CFC and Man United over the deal with Mata...I will find him one day outside a football pitch and I will break his face.' Sure enough, a few weeks later Jose did give Wenger a beating. The thumping defeat came on the day when Wenger was celebrating 1,000 games in charge. Wenger ducked out of the post-match press conference, insisting the bus was about to leave It was March 22, 2014, the day of the Frenchman's 1,000th game as a manager, and it just happened to be an away match at Chelsea. Final score: Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0. Wenger was utterly humiliated, so much so that he ducked out of the usual post-match press conference. His excuse was that the Arsenal team coach was about to leave. Jose was quick to mock Wenger for that, joking with me: 'Next time I lose a game I don't go to the press conference because the team bus is waiting for me.' No sympathy, no remorse, no regrets. Wenger had become the man Mourinho just loved to hate. Mourinho says he told Wenger 'you know I can't react, but I will meet you one day in the street' The war of words between the pair actually became physical on Arsenal's next visit to the Bridge, October 5, 2014. Chelsea won 2–0 but the game is best remembered for an angry shoving match between the managers on the touchline. I asked Jose what had happened and he revealed: 'He was asking for a red card and pressing the ref in my technical area. I told him to go back to his area. He pushed me. 'I told him, "Here you do that, you know I can't react, but I will meet you one day in the street".' Now I don't think Jose was ever serious about having fisticuffs with the Frenchman, he was just huffing and puffing and letting off steam. I gave him the benefit of the doubt on this occasion, even though an article for me with Jose saying, 'Let's sort this out in the street, Arsene' would have been huge. Wenger has no competitive wins over Mourinho, but did win the Community Shield in 2015 I told Jose this could be a good story to show he took no nonsense from Wenger but I added that I thought it was best to leave it. Jose took it on board, replying: 'Yeah, yeah, he is in a bad situation for his clean image but if I do what he did I would be dead by the media and the FA.' Later in the 2014–15 season there was more astonishing stuff from Jose after Chelsea won 5–0 at Swansea. When I congratulated Mourinho he was already looking forward to the next day's clash between Manchester City and Arsenal. He declared: 'Yes was good, now let's see s*** Arsenal.' We were both convinced City would win but Arsenal won 2–0. I told Jose they'd actually done a 'Chelsea' and copied his game plan from a year ago and his emailed response left me gobsmacked. First he joked: 'Mr Wenger gets new 5 years contract' but then he claimed '(One of the Arsenal players) sent me an SMS to say players did themselves, organised themselves during the week. Wenger did nothing.' When I expressed my amazement he replied that his information was '100 per cent'. What was undeniable was the depth of Mourinho's dislike for Wenger. That could certainly be proven beyond all reasonable doubt and Jose boiled over again when Arsenal were trying to sign Chelsea's goalkeeper Petr Cech for £10m in the summer of 2015. Mourinho wasn't interested in the money. He wanted to keep Cech but was overruled by owner Roman Abramovich. He took his frustration out on Wenger, whom he blamed for unsettling Cech, and immediately hatched a plan to try to turn a straightforward cash sale into a swap deal in a bid to prise away, or at the very least unsettle, a couple of young Arsenal stars in retaliation. He told me in an email: 'Mister Wenger wants Cech and he thinks about money...he is wrong!!! What I want is to f*** him...Want Cech? OK, I want (Theo) Walcott or (Alex) Oxlade-Chamberlain!!! Want a top goalkeeper? OK, I want a young player, s*** with you but I can make him top.'
My initial thoughts purely from this extract is...bloody hell. We all knew he didn't like Wenger, but who knew it would be this deep? I don't understand why he has this malevolent, spiteful obsession with him. It's actually unhealthy. He's always taking every opportunity he can to take a dig at Wenger or make a below-the-belt remark about him, despite Wenger never initiating any of it. Does he take issue with the fact that people still hold Wenger in high regard and see him as being 'lesser'? Or that he keeps getting sacked/being forced out, yet Wenger keeps his job? If he carries on like this, Wenger will need a restraining order!
Yeah i read this and found his hatred of Wenger way over the top. The difference between the two is Wenger is more refined and restrained, but i think he also genuinely dislikes Maureen too. This should make the game against Man U even more spicy, like it used to be when Fergie was in charge, before him and Wenger became "mates". I can see the Maureen superiority over Wenger take a change now. Wenger has a better overall team and is willing to alter his tactics and be more defensive. Also Man U aren't very good at the moment too.
Not sure about that. If Arsene is to get the W he would have to drop Mou in the 1st. Wenger is too stuck in his ways. He will become predictable, and Mou would switch up his tactics. And we know what Arsene is like defensively...
All Maureen has in his locker is the eye poke. Wenger can simply nullify that with his long legs by extending a knee to the bollocks. Mo down in the 1st.
But Arsene doesn't play dirty. He would want the perfect shot to the jaw while Mou is scratching, poking and pulling hair
more to the point, i want to know who was the **** that was texting jose information? must be ozil surely?
Unless you want a voice recording or video evidence of the entire exchange, I don't understand how else you want proof. They are quotes from what Mourinho said to the journalist. Beasley could get sued very easily if the quotes were fabricated, so I don't see what he would gain from making them up. Mourinho had the opportunity to deny the claims made in his press conference earlier, yet made no attempt to refute them.
Yeah I suppose. It just seems too good/sensational to be true. It was only recently I heard someone on the radio say that Mourinho always calls his team 'they' when they lose and 'we' when we win. I though 'nah, might have happened once as a coincidence but no way that's true'... But it really is. This guy is a bit odd. This goes beyond comic pantomime villain and just paints him as a bit of a tit... If true and he did say those things.
Thing is, at first I found it difficult to believe as well. But when you consider the things he's said in the past and the way he acts, it really isn't that surprising if these quotes are true. RE: The face-break comment - where did he deny it? I tried to find where he denied it and all the reports I've read have basically just said that he has been civilised with Wenger and that he is happy the journalist got his payday. But I couldn't actually find anywhere where he categorically denies the allegations made in the book.
