‘I feel like I’m in kindergarten dealing with Jose Mourinho’ – Arsene Wenger opens up on frosty relationship with former rival
Former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger has responded to Jose Mourinho’s comments about his autobiography, where Mourinho was conspicuously omitted.
Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996 and won three premier league titles along with numerous other major honours in a 20 year career at the club.
After leaving Arsenal in 2018, the 70-year-old Wenger released his autobiography My Life in Red and White earlier this month, detailing his long tenure with the club among other things.
In the book he spoke about his famed rivalry with Sir Alex Ferguson, but avoided talking about Mourinho with whom he had a frosty relationship with.
Quizzed earlier in the week about his absence from the pages, Mourinho said he got the better of Wenger throughout their managerial career together.
“You are not going to do a chapter about 12 or 14 matches and never win one so why should he speak about me in his book?” he stated.
“A book is a thing to make you happy, to make you proud so I understand perfectly the situation.”
Wenger has now responded to the Tottenham manager’s comments, singling out Mourinho’s response as petty.
According to Wenger, Mourinho’s attitude of “permanent provocation” makes him feel like he is dealing with a particularly unruly kindergartener.
“It doesn’t bother me,” he told Canal+. “It is permanent provocation. I feel like I’m in kindergarten with him. But, that’s part of his personality.
“It’s wrong, we beat him twice. We won, and there were also a lot of draws. And it is not ‘you’ who wins, you only participate in the victory. It is ‘us’ who win. The manager is there to get the most out of a team.”
Wenger also spoke about speculation that Real Madrid wanted to sign him during his career saying he rejected Madrid twice to remain with the club who helped transform into a powerhouse of British football.
“Yes, I have refused them twice,” he added. “But I was in a perspective [to] what I had undertaken. We had built the stadium, and we had to pay.”
