Wenger
saddened by Jose exit
by Tom Adams, 21 September 2007
Arsene Wenger has described Jose Mourinhos shock exit from Chelsea
as not good news for football.
The Frenchman has had many a verbal tussle with Mourinho over the
past three years but was disappointed to see his rival leave
Stamford Bridge after much intrigue on Wednesday night.
It is believed that Roman Abramovichs desire to see Chelsea play
attractive football superseded his pleasure at Mourinhos constant
stream of trophies, leaving both parties forced to push through a
divorce that will see Mourinho net a huge compensation
payment.
Whilst Wenger has not been short of a barb or two in Mourinhos
direction regarding his style of play in the past, the Frenchman
still feels that the departure of the Chelsea boss after three
years in the hotseat reflects badly on the game at large.
"It is basically sad because I feel Mourinho is a manager of
quality," said Wenger.
"I am a great believer in technical stability and therefore I don't
think it is good news for football."
Wenger has also insisted he holds a great respect for Mourinho,
despite threatening him with legal action in 2005 after the former
Chelsea boss accused him of being a voyeur .
"We didn't get on the best but recently it has become better,
Wenger added. "That does not hide the fact I respected what he did
and the quality of his work.
"Of course he is a great manager. He arrived when Chelsea were on
the way up; they had a good side already and he did something more
and made them winners.
"He deserves a lot of credit for that because it is never easy to
win and in England it is maybe more difficult.
Wenger has further revealed he enjoys a good relationship with the
man who has been appointed to succeed Mourinho, Avram Grant.
"I know him very well from Israel. I have very good relations with
Avram," Wenger told the clubs official website. "When he was
manager of Israel he visited some clubs and he came here through
some common connections we had and since we have had very good
relations.
"He is a very talented coach. I don't know if he is just filling in
or will take over for the longer term but we will see what kind of
changes he makes."
Meanwhile, Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov has revealed he is
keen to up his stake in Arsenal to over 25 percent, after recently
increasing his share to 21 percent.
Usmanov, in league with former Gunners vice-chairman David Dein,
has been increasing his stake steadily and now hopes to hold a
blocking stake a portion of the club high enough to make the day
to day running difficult without a proportion of shareholder
support.
"I want to be in a position that will allow me a blocking stake and
will then wait for it to go up in value," Interfax news agency
quoted Usmanov as saying in a broadcast on Ekho Moskvy radio
station.
Extracted from
http://sport.setanta.com