When asked about Wenger's comments
on Mourinho's fear of failure, the Special One didn't hold back about his title
rival
Jose Mourinho today hit back in the
war of words as he branded Arsene Wenger ''a specialist in failure''.
The Arsenal boss had upped the ante
by claiming that Mourinho's underplaying
of his side's title chances was due to the Portuguese having a ''fear of
failure''.
But Mourinho hit back with a
devastating side-swipe, pointing to the fact that Arsenal's last trophy was the
2005 FA Cup in comparison to his own rich trophy haul with Chelsea, Inter Milan
and Real Madrid.
"He's a specialist in failure,
I'm not," replied Mourinho.
"If, supposing he's right and
I'm afraid of failure, it's because I don't fail many times.
"So maybe he's right. I'm not
used to failing.
"But the reality is he's a
specialist because, eight years without a piece of silverware, that's failure.
If I did that in Chelsea I'd leave and not come back."
Asked if he feared anything in
football, Mourinho – without both John Terry and Gary Cahill for tomorrow's FA Cup trip to
Manchester City – insisted: "No.
"I just say that if Mr
Abramovich gives me eight years to prepare a team, which I don't want – I just
want my four years of contract and, after that, to deserve or not deserve the
next contract – but in eight years you have to build so much, so much, so much.
"So I don't want eight years. I
just want four. I want the next one to say we are candidates."
The brutal response demonstrated a
rare flash of anger from Mourinho, which suggests Wenger may have got under his
skin.
But the scale of the return of fire
was a significant escalation in hostilities and even though Mourinho opted not
to criticise Manuel Pellegrini, he had no qualms in attempting to demolish
Wenger's other argument that the title is now "Chelsea's to lose".
Mourinho added: ''The champions are
Manchester United, so Manchester United are the title's owner until the moment
where, mathematically, they lose the title.
"The title belongs to Man
United. If United are not champions this season, and we almost agree that it's
almost impossible for them to be, then it's them who are losing it.
"But the next game is an FA Cup
match, not a Premier League match. The FA Cup is big and beautiful."
Mourinho, hinting a half a dozen
changes from the side which drew at West Brom, insisted it would be wrong to
expect a repeat of the league win at The Etihad last week.
And in response to Pellegrini's
refusal to discuss him ahead of the game, he said: "I don't like this
history of records between managers.
"It's between teams, not
managers. I don't like it. If I have a record in favour or against, I don't
like it either way. I don't look at it in any aspect.
"If he doesn't like to speak
about me, perfect. I hope he does what he says and doesn't speak.”
culled from the mirror
culled from the mirror
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