BackDo ManU fans realise how acerbic Jose Mourinho is?
Jose Mourinho is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, dividing opinion more often than not with some really acerbic utterings in his press conferences
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Earlier on Friday, Manchester United officially confirmed Jose Mourinho as their new manager. Mourinho, the club said, signed a three-year contract, with an option of a fourth year. Mourinho will be the third Manchester United manager to take charge of the club since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the end of the 2012/13 season.
Mourinho is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, dividing opinion more often than not with some really acerbic utterings in his press conferences.
Here are some of them:
As an opposing manager with Chelsea, Mourinho had some pretty harsh things to say about his new club. This was in April 2007. “The circumstances are difficult for us with the new football rules that we have to face. It is not possible to have a penalty against Manchester United and it is not possible to have penalties in favour of Chelsea. It is not a conspiracy, it is fact. I speak facts. If not, I need big glasses."
Sticking to 2007, this is what Mourinho said about the lack of funds available to him at Chelsea. “It is omelettes and eggs. No eggs - no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem."
And this, is what he once said when he was asked about dealing with pressure in September 2007. “For me, pressure is bird flu. I’m feeling a lot of pressure with the problem in Scotland. It’s not fun and I’m more scared of it than football."
Mourinho can often come across as a man obsessed with personalities, and they’re mostly his rival managers. Sample this famous quote on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, when he famously called him “a specialist in failure." Two years ago, Mourinho said, “If he 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." This was not his only jibe at the long-serving Arsenal gaffer. In 2005, he called Wenger a voyeur. “I think he 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."
And similarly, Pep Guardiola, who will take over as manager of Manchester’s other club, and United’s city rivals—Manchester City. The duo enjoyed a famous, often vicious tussle during Mourinho’s time in Spain, when he was in charge of Real Madrid and Guardiola, then manager of Barcelona. In April 2011, Mourinho said, “Josep Guardiola is a fantastic coach, but I have won two Champions Leagues. He has won one Champions League and that is one that would embarrass me. I would be ashamed to have won it with the scandal of Stamford Bridge and if he wins it this year it will be with the scandal of the Bernabeu. I hope that one day he can win a proper Champions League."
A year later, Mourinho said this about Guardiola. “Deep down, if they are good people, it cannot taste right for them. I hope one day Guardiola has the chance of winning a brilliant, clean championship with no scandal."
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