Mourinho mocks Wenger for making 'political' excuses in
defeat
Jose Mourinho last night intensified his ongoing feud with Arsène
Wenger by claiming Arsenal have been "very intelligent" in the way
their public image has been projected amid failure on the pitch and
suggested the Arsenal manager too readily uses the progress of his
young players as an excuse in the wake of defeats.
Arsenal's season is all but over with more than two months still
remaining. They were eliminated from the Champions League by PSV
Eindhoven, lost to Chelsea in the Carling Cup final, were knocked
out of the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers and remain 20 points adrift
of the Premiership leaders Manchester United. Mourinho feels that
if his side had endured such a sequence of results stronger
condemnation would ensue.
"At the start of every season we say we want to win trophies," he
said. "If we win matches and trophies we have success. If we don't
win matches then we don't have the success we are waiting
for.
"I do not say 20 times that against Porto in the last 16 of the
Champions League, for example, we finished the game with three boys
aged 20; we are not these kind of people. If they have a player
aged 20, 19, 18 or 34 that is not the point. If we play very, very,
very well and don't win that is not the point. We have a direct
approach to win and suffer the consequences of that when things are
not going well."
The Chelsea manager believes Wenger projects Arsenal's image in a
"political way" to ensure failure reduces the damage done to his
players. "I think they are very intelligent in their approach," he
said. "I don't think here we have a political approach to things. I
am not a politician and we do not fight our image in a political
way. We do it in a sporting way.
"If you win, you win and if you lose, you lose. We do not protect
ourselves. When we win, we win and when we don't we come in for
criticism. "But I think that is down to club mentality. [We are] a
club without a big history that has a new owner with ambitions, and
who brings people in who are not afraid to fail, and assumes clear
targets, desires and ambitions. If we reach them we are happy and
if we don't reach [them] we have no excuses. We just accept it in a
sporting way."
Mourinho continued his thinly veiled attack on the Frenchman when
asked about the potential fixture congestion Chelsea face as they
step up their pursuit of the three remaining domestic trophies as
well as the Champions League.
"It is unbelievable but what can I do?" he asked. "I prefer to do
that than to already be on holidays. I know both us and United have
games postponed on Easter Monday and if one or both of us reaches
the FA Cup semi-finals it's another league game postponed and that
is a big problem. But I prefer that than being out of the
competitions. At this moment if Chelsea were out of all four
competitions I would imagine we would be in a difficult
situation."
David Beckham's debut for LA Galaxy could come against Chelsea
after the Premiership champions announced their participation in
the World Series of Football. The four-team tournament will take
place at Galaxy's Home Depot Center, with the hosts due to face
Chelsea in the second round of matches on July 21.
