Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger shocks by offering support to under-fire Jose Mourinho after Manchester United’s Champions League exit
There has been no love lost between the two over the years with Wenger offering words of comfort to the man who dubbed him a 'specialist in failure'
JOSE MOURINHO has come in for heavy criticism after Manchester United’s Champions League embarrassment, but kindness from Arsene Wenger is the last thing he could have expected.
Despite calling the Arsenal boss a “voyeur” and a “specialist in failure” the Frenchman offered some words of comfort for the under-fire Old Trafford chief.
Wenger masterminded his team’s path to the Europa League quarter-finals with a comfortable 5-1 aggregate win over Milan and after the win offered his rival some encouragement.
The Gunners boss said: “I’m supportive of everybody who suffers. Your job (the media’s) is to get everybody to suffer. Our job is to get as few people as possible to suffer.
“I want English football to do well. But people at our level, they are the most demanding with themselves.
“And the biggest suffering we get is from our own demands with ourselves. For the rest, we get love or not love.
Latest Man Utd news
“You know what a guy said? You’re loved when you’re born, you’re loved when you die, in between you have to manage.
“I want everybody to be happy in the world. I don’t want to speak about Manchester United’s situation because my job is to take care of Arsenal.
DIVER DAN Danny Welbeck in dive storm as Arsene Wenger admits he ‘understands’ why AC Milan players were angered by penalty decision
“And overall I want English football to do well, and I want every manager to be happy. It’s not possible.
“We can struggle, we are like Man United, we are like Tottenham, like everybody. Football is football.”
Mourinho's war on Wenger
2005
“Wenger has a real problem with us and I think he is what you call in England a voyeur. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. Wenger must be one of them – it is a sickness. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.”
2014
“Am I afraid of failure? He (Wenger) is a specialist in failure. I’m not. So if one supposes he’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.”
2015
“In this country, only one manager is not under pressure. Every other manager is. “We cannot be below par. We have to meet the objectives. There is one outside that list, but good for him. You know who.”
“The one who can speak about the referees before the game, after the game, can push people in the technical area, can moan, can cry in the morning, in the afternoon, nothing happens. He can not achieve, keep his job, still be the king.”
Danny Welbeck celebrated his return to the England fold with a brace and Granit Xhaka’s third goal of the season were enough to see off Milan at the Emirates last night.
Due to being knocked out of the FA Cup, Arsenal are not back in action until after the international break when strugglers Stoke visit North London.