Former Chelsea and Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has
labeled former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, ‘ a sweet enemy’
outlining how hard it was to dislodge the Arsenal manager from the
throne of English football.
Mourinho and Wenger were involved in a number of heated exchanges
with each other over the years, with Mourinho once labeling Wenger a
‘specialist in failure’ but Mourinho insists it has done nothing to
diminish his respect for the 69-year-old.
Mourinho had a heated rivalry with Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson
during his first stint as Chelsea manager in 2005, just after Arsenal
lifted the EPL trophy without suffering defeat – an achievement that saw
them labeled ‘the Invincibles’.
The rivalry continued during Mourinho’s second spell in Chelsea and
during his spell in charge of Manchester United from 2016 to 2018.
“He is a very intelligent person and one of the best managers in the
history of football,” he told @LaureusSport after Wenger was awarded
the Laureus World Sports Awards’ Lifetime Achievement award.
“I arrived in England and I found ‘the Invincibles’ and I found
Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson very much hurt by that Arsenal
season.
“And we were like a third force coming. Chelsea had a great desire to
be champions for the first time in so many years. So, of course, it was
the confrontation of forces and you can imagine that Sir Alex, Wenger
and myself we were fighting for the same. We were like, I like to say in
football, ‘sweet enemies’.
“My feeling is where are the next ‘Invincibles’? Where are they? Who
did it again? Who made people forget that he was the manager of the
invincible team? Lots of philosophies, lots of talk, lots of PR.
Football today is a lot about this, but [it is about] results, and who
did better than him?”
He added: “I really enjoyed the competition but there were some
episodes along the road that I don’t like to say I regret because this
is really part of our history and we cannot go back and delete them.
“But what I can say is that the real respect is always there.”