“If you declare yourself not in the race, you cannot lose it, simple as that,” declared Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on Friday, with the Mirror’s Alan Wilson quoting him as saying of the EPL leaders, “only Chelsea can lose it because they are in front and all the other teams can win it.” If this seems like a strange semantic exercise, Chelsea’s Jose “Rabbit Ears” Mourinho (above) — no stranger to feuding with Wenger — might agree. From the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield :
“He is a specialist in failure, I’m not,” retorted the Portuguese. “So if supposing Wenger’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 London and not come back.”
Asked if Wenger’s comments had annoyed him, Mourinho said: “Yes. He loves to look at this football club. I thought between 2007 and 2013 [when the Portuguese was at Internazionale and Real Madrid] was enough time for Wenger to forget this. But it looks like he always likes to look at this club. Am I afraid of failure? What is that. I believe at the end of the day I’ll be seen as the ‘impolite guy’, the one who’s aggressive in his words. But I’m not.
“He is saying we’re not candidates because we’re afraid of failure? Failure of what? Not winning a title this year? Or in two years? I have a lot of respect for him, he’s a great coach, but failure is not winning a title in seven or eight years. That’s failure. Am I aggressive in my words? I don’t know. Ask him, not me [why he is obsessed with Chelsea].”
“If I don’t win a trophy in four years, I don’t want a new contract,” he added.