Mourinho explains why Wenger snubbed him in new book

 

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 a 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.

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.

Things took a really ugly turn when 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.