Yet another chapter in the book of Arsene Wenger vs Jose Mourinho was written today, and it comes off the heels of the United manager giving his opinion on what expectations for rival Premier League clubs should be. Given the acrimonious history between the two men, you saw this coming once Mourinho opened his mouth to ascribe ambitions on Arsenal.
Yesterday saw Mourinho lamenting his club doesn’t have the budget to fill out a roster than can match Manchester City. The Portugese maintained that United Executive Vice President Ed Woodward hasn’t provided him the same resources that Pep Guardiola has at City.
“One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team. They are different things,” Mourinho said.
“When you say a club like Manchester United, do you think Milan is not as big as us? You think they are not as big as we are?”
“Do you think Real Madrid are not as big as we are? You think Inter Milan is not as big as we are? There are many big clubs. So when you speak about responsibilities to win the Premier League, Tottenham does not have that responsibility?”
“Tottenham is not a club with the same history as us, Arsenal doesn’t have the responsibility to win it, Chelsea doesn’t have the responsibility to win it?”
“We are in the second year of trying to rebuild a football team you know is not one of the best teams in the world.”
“Manchester City buy the full-backs for the price of the strikers, so when you speak about big football clubs, you are speaking about the history of the club.”
Mourinho basically condescended to Wenger and Arsenal there by saying what he thinks their goals should be. Wenger returned the condescension by saying Mourinho needs to learn to cope with other teams outspending his.
“I have been in that position for 21 years so I can’t start to complain now,” Wenger said at his news conference today.
“There have always been three or four teams richer than I am. I’ve learned to cope with that. We deal with our own situation as well as we can. Man City, Chelsea and Man United are all richer than us. You have to find ways to be successful.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.