FIGHT! The Mourinho-Wenger rivalry in quotes
In light of Jose Mourinho's latest salvo aimed at Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, here are some of the most colourful quotes from their verbal sparring sessions of the past ...
Arsene Wenger gets the ball rolling in August 2005 by criticising Jose's negative tactics.
"I know we live in a world where we have only winners and losers, but once a sport encourages teams who refuse to take the initiative, the sport is in danger."
The Special One declares war with his classic "voyeur" line in October 2005 as he responds to a Wenger moan about Chelsea's splurging on the transfer market.
"I think he (Wenger) is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea."
Wenger returns fire and threatens legal action in November 2005.
"He's out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes."
Mourinho refuses to back down despite Wenger's fighting talk.
"At Stamford Bridge, we have a file of quotes from Mr Wenger about Chelsea football club in the last 12 months - it is not a file of five pages. It is a file of 120 pages so we have a very strong reaction. My objective is that it is enough."
Wenger tries to get under Mourinho's skin with this jibe about his managerial ability ahead of their meeting in the League Cup final of 2007.
"If you would like to compare every manager you give each one the same amount of resources and say: 'you have that for five years'. After five years you see who has done the most."
Jose still takes a swipe at the Professor's track record in April 2008 - even though he was jobless at the time!
"The English like statistics a lot. Do they know that Arsene Wenger has only 50 per cent of wins in the English league?"
It didn't take very long for another squabble to start when Mourinho returned for a second spell at Chelsea as he took issue with a Wenger complaint about Chelsea selling Juan Mata to Manchester United in January
"Wenger complaining is normal because he always does. Normally he should be happy that Chelsea sold a player like Juan Mata, but this is a little bit his nature. I think what is not fair is that his team always has the best days to play."
Jose viciously tears into his rival - on Valentine's Day no less - after Wenger suggested that other managers involved in the title race were playing down their chances because of a fear to fail.
"If he (Wenger) is right and I am afraid of failure it is because I didn't fail many times. Eight years without silverware, that's failure.He's a specialist in failure. If I do that in Chelsea, eight years, I leave and don't come back."
Sources: Sky Sports, Mirror Online, BBC
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
