“He is a specialist in failure. I’m not,”
“If supposedly he is right and I’m afraid to fail, it’s because I haven’t failed many times. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe I’m not used to failing."

“The reality is he is a specialist. Eight years without a piece of silverware, that’s failure. If I do that at Chelsea, eight years, I leave London and I don’t come back.”

It's harsh but true, and if it takes the focus off our players and creates a bad influence on Arsenal then I'm all game for it.

They lack depth and quality in the bench, Wenger did what he could and he did pretty good. Look at Arsenal squad and their actual ranking, amazing performence. And Wenger has something many coaches dont have : Loyality. He was Loyal, he is loyal, he could go to a richer team many times and he refused.
Its not fair to say that about him, but Mourinhos behaviour does not surprise me. He is not a gentleman and he assume it, fine for him.

He joined Porto who were in fifth spot and he promised that they would win the league. In his first full season in charge Mourinho spent approximately £10 million despite having a strong squad anyway. This would become his calling card, taking top squads and spending large sums of money on them, in his second season he spent nearly £10 million again and this time won the Champions League, and that’s when Mourinho started one of his seconds traits. Mourinho will take a club to its highest high and leave, knowing he cannot again take them to those heights, and if he fails during a season he gives up and leaves.

Mourinho started his career at Chelsea by spending £140 millions. Mourinho managed to do the double. In his second season he spent £80 million, that’s £80 million on the reigning champions, the reigning champions who lost none of their first team players, again they won the league.
His third year Mourinho spent another £80 million but this year missed out on the trophy and that was it. He realised he couldn’t win the league and was out of the Bridge like a shot once the Internazionale job came up.

In his first season he spent £50 million to try and strengthen the squad and despite winning the league fell short of the expectations that came with it, so Mourinho spent £83 million on a squad that again really needed no improvement. Mourinho won the Champions League; so what next for the special one?

The summer of 2010 Mourinho took the reins at Real Madrid, one of the richest teams in the world, a team that a year previously had spent £225 million on getting some of the best players in the world. Yet Jose still felt necessary to spend £82 million much the same in 2011 when Mourinho spent £43 million and just managed to pip Barcelona to the La Liga Title. Mourinho spent one final season at Real and having only spent £29 million seemed to be destined for England once more, and that he was it for his La Liga Career.

And here we are, less than 48 hours after Mourinho has completed the signing of Nemanja Matic, A player sold for under £4 million bought back at £22 Million, bringing the total spending of Chelsea this window to £88.5 million and pushing Mourinho’s total spending as a manager to £562.5 million.

The question is: Could Mourinho be that successful without that amount of spending?

Damn, he has got nerve!

But its more about dignity. Mourinho would be ashamed of himself if he didn't win a trophy, but Wenger is determined in a way but not strong-willed (He doesn't sign players etc.)

@fabryi: He wouldn't have won as many trophies if he didn't spend that much money, but I can guarantee you that Mourinho would have won some silverware in 8 years with a top 4 team considering he was able to win the CL, Europa League, and Portuguese League with Porto while only spending 10m.

@V you know 10 millions was much more 10 years ago than today ;)

No, it wasn't. Maybe twenty or thirty years ago it would have been much more of an expensive buy, but 10 years ago 10m wasn't "much more" like you think. Also, that 10m was for more than one player too, two of his signings there were bosman transfers as well.

If someone less succesful told you "you're afraid to fail", wouldn't "you're the one to talk" be the natural reply? I don't know why this is such a big deal..

No not really, as Arsenal is in a TOTALLY different situation than clubs like Chelsea/RM and Inter. Wenger cares about the well being of the club and getting the debt payed down hence why he doesnt spend much and sells players for profit. While before the stadium debt came he was arguably the best along with Ferguson. I strongly prefer Mourinho over Wenger as i enjoy controversial and charismatic managers more than the "Wenger" type manager.

To be fair, all you said is true, Dephased. I actually read an interview recently with Juande Ramos stating that Tottenham 'lacked ambition' because Levy was trying to run the club profitably and not splurge on huge players every window (he claims he wanted BOTH Eto'o and David Villla, in 2008!).

He then tries to mention Chelsea, City and United, citing them as examples of 'ambitious' teams wiling to invest.

I was like: "er, so, what part of the fact that Chelsea and City have billionaire owners, United have a 75,000 stadium and a worldwide audience, whereas Spurs have only 35,000 at their stadium, do you not understand?"

Personally, I think Mourinho's words are a pretty good comeback to what Wenger said about him, but, there's no denying what Wenger has managed to achieve whilst saddled with all that stadium debt.

What a dickhead. It makes me want City to win the title more than Chelsea just to wipe that smug off his face. He needs to be a gentleman and have more class than going out and degrading your oponent. It doesn't come out to good when you do the big talk and don't have much to back in the end. Right now he can says that, we will see if he can say that in the end of the season though.

The real question is:
Would Mourinho have won a trophy if he coached Arsenal in the past 9 years?
Maybe, but then maybe not. What I know for sure is that he wouldn't have been able to keep us in top 4 every season.

@Messi6511 He never said that he wants to win the title this year to begin with. He was simply replying to what Wenger said.

"It is very open, only Chelsea can lose it now because they are in front and all the other teams can win it," he told reporters.
Really? He was on top of the table for many months and we are just 1 point ahead of Arsenal.. How is it "Only Chelsea can lose it" and not Arsenal who were on top of the table for the majority of time?

"I've always said many teams are in it and it will be very tight until the end."
Yes, that's right Wenger except Arsenal. Because your trophy is 4th place, Yet you got lucky many times getting there instead of Tottenham.

"If you're not in the race you cannot lose it, if you declare yourself not in the race you cannot lose it, simple as that."
Just being Wenger. Reading his first quote you wouldn't think he was on top of the table at all.
I think he deserves Mourinho's reply and he got nothing to back it up.

^^^ His answer is very simple. Only Chelsea can "lose it" because if they do not slip up once on top, then they technically cannot lose the title. That's why he implies that all other teams can win it, because it is theirs to gain, not to drop. Whoever is on top has the power to win the league with consecutive results.

And the last answer is valid as well. Mou has declared time and time again that he is not in the title race, yet his team seems to think so. If he does win, it will play off as if he wasn't even intending to win. Well, what is he competing for? If you go into games, and you obviously cannot lose, your aim is to win. He's being very passive about winning the league, but it's a facade. With consecutive wins comes the title. Mou's got charisma which gets him by most of the time, but he's just as ridiculous as he claims Wenger to be.

Wenger start it and Jose end it

You Arsenal fans always use the same excuse when your 8 year drought is brought up: "Well we don't have sugar daddies like City, Chelsea, Madrid, PSG. and Monaco who help them win silverware"

I guess oil rich Swansea, Birmingham, Wigan, Portsmouth, Tottenham and Liverpool used mountains of money to win trophies in those past 8 years too?

Face it, Wenger's past eight years have been failure after failure. Then some Arsenal fans are asking if Mourinho would have won silverware with Arsenal in 8 years time, right? Well you know what, I'm 95% sure he would have won at least one trophy with a top four team in the Premier League in 8 long years.

Just look at his records with Porto in two years only:

And when he had a little amount of money, he knew how to use that little amount wisely (along with making profits from selling players twice (or more) the price he originally bought them for. Just. Like. Wenger.

Porto Transfers 02/03:

Porto Transfers 03/04:

(He spent more than he sold in that season but the season after he left shows how valuable the players he trained or bought would be later e.g. Deco, Bosingwa, Paulo, Carlos Alberto, etc.)

@Fabryi
Can't people just stop talking about spendings.. Every-big-club did spend without any exception.

Sir Alex Ferguson Spent $850 Million Buying Players At Manchester United
That's $850 million just in fees to buy players from other teams excluding wages. Sir Alex is one of the most successful coach in the history of sports, and a huge part of that success was having the money to buy top players, and using that money wisely.

When Mourinho came to Chelsea in his first spell and won the league back-to-back, he needed to rebuild a team to compete with the ones who were spending the most in the league such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. I don't care what you made out of the transfers and what is your profits from the transfer. (You.Did.Spend.) people who keep saying that we spent more than them should complain to their club instead of talking about other spending club's. and fight for their lives instead of making excuses. It's their club's problem to think about.

Alex you're kinda right but, no one from us know what is happening in the club. I'm just saying that with that amount of spend money it would be really fail if he didn't win anything right?

@fabryi Of course, but this is the toughest EPL season ever. Every club strengthen their squad by signing a couple of players and every game is unpredictable. in this case there is 3 meaning of winning in the EPL (1 winner) Winning the toughest league in the world, making it top 4 & not relegate. If Mourinho doesn't win the title this year he is not a failure and it's unfair to call him that when he just came back this season to build a dominant team who is still as he call them "Little horses" they are still young and need some experience. Next season is going to be much more different for Mourinho and it's going to be his year. We are in a good position even if we just make it top 4 this year. No panic. It's Manchester City are the ones to panic and fear the FFP. (1 point difference is nothing in such a tough league, you can lose it with a goal difference.)

You do realise Vendetta that clubs like Wigan sacrifised their league form for a cup? They got relegated in return for getting a FA Cup and Wenger prioritises Premier League form due to the tv revenues and champions league football finishing outside would be a disaster especially when you are in financial trouble. You mention Portsmouth? Well the fact that you mentioned Pompey means you have no clue whatsoever what you are talking about. Pompey had a massive sugar daddy buying loads of quality players to the club and is why they reached 2 Fa Cup finals won one and did decently in the league. But what happened? All went to rat **** because him and his managers mindlessly spent on players and wages. Where are they now? Skybet Football League 2 my friend. Birmingham City got relegated the same year they beat us in the League Cup final. Liverpool? They have spent a lot of money. 35 mil for Carrol? 20m For henderson and so on. They have had no champions league football for the last couple of years and won one League Cup? Not really worth it.