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Wenger and Ferguson are on borrowed time - there's only one 'Special One'... and that's me, insists Jose Mourinho | the Daily Mail

Jose Mourinho claims that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson cannot claim the same level of success that he achieved in only three years at Chelsea.


While Manchester United have edged out Arsenal in the title race in a show-down between the two longest serving and most successful current managers in the Premier League, as Chelsea under Avram Grant and Liverpool under Rafa Benitez also trail in United's wake, former Chelsea manager Mourinho believes that they can never be as “special” as he was and that they have been living on borrowed time.

Writing in a book called Jose Mourinho – Vencedor Nato (Jose Mourinho – Born Winner), Mourinho claims: “The English like statistics a lot, numbers, especially number 100. It's a fascinating number, for example games as manager in the Premier League.


"Do they know that the percentage of wins by Arsene Wenger in the English league is 50 per cent? And that Alex Ferguson, in the same number of games, barely managed to achieve three points in half of them?

"And my Chelsea beat those numbers completely, reaching well over 70 league wins, winning two championships in a row without blinking and leaving the directors of the Premier League on the verge of a nervous breakdown? Does that make me a better manager than Wenger or Ferguson? No. But I also don't think it makes me a worse manager than them.”

He admits that he put extra pressure on himself by bringing instant trophy success: “Perhaps I won too soon. I felt, at times, that I was the victim of my own success, that the victories in championships and cups have a special meaning in my career, but perhaps came too early.

“People tend to look at Chelsea as a rich club, thinking the owner's money can buy this world and another, if need be. That could be turned against Chelsea on the pitch, as a powerful weapon from outside the club. Because nobody knows the conditions in which we had to build our victories, because they happened against all expectations and the wisest commandments in football.”

He had a dig at Chelsea's rivals over their own spending policies. He said: “The same people who say that Mourinho bought success forget the investment that Manchester United have made during many years. How much did Rio Ferdinand cost? What do those people think when it's announced that Liverpool and Rafa Benitez have got £70million to spend on signings for the season?

“They don't think about it because Liverpool haven't been champions for over ten years and it's good for business for them to become that in coming times.

“When Chelsea dropped points against Manchester United, for months, everyone had their right to speculate. They said that Chelsea were no longer dominant.

“In three months, without Chelsea having lost anything, they invented 14 future managers of the club to replace me. That's what I mean. In the whole history of the Premier League I was the first manager to become a champion in his first season.”

He reiterates his attack on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's almost mythical status as a manager who has shunned spending to give youth a chance.

He said: “I didn't even have the chance which others had, of starting from scratch. I didn't have the possibility of working medium/long term, as I think is appropriate for a coach who wants to do a job in a club, like Arsene Wenger, a manager who's greatly appreciated by journalists.
“I'm the first to hold admiration for the Arsenal manager because he's done a fantastic job in finding and developing players, but you also have to note that Arsene Wenger's very intelligent. He has a different policy of communication to mine. I'm different in the way I project my outside image, and that's because of the possibilities of our jobs.

“I worked in the present with conditions from the past and he works in the future with conditions from the present. He can be defensive in his communications, from start till finish, while I had to put myself in a difficult position, using the tool of communications as a motivational factor for my team. There are different echoes.

“When I said my player is the best in the world, I was taking a risk in my communication. I risked my reputation, I risked people considering me mad, while Arsene Wenger has a more stable situation which allows him to be defensive in his relationship with the media and with everyone outside Arsenal. That's got nothing to do with our own characteristics, or with our idiosyncrasies, or with our choices, but with the nature of the clubs.”

He forgets that Arsene Wenger did the double in only his second season at Arsenal and adds: “How many championships has Benitez won since he joined Liverpool? None. And how many names were suggested by the press to replace him? None. How many years did Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger take before they won their first English title? They needed five years to get there. And how many years was it necessary to wait before the English press entertained itself with discovering whether or not Wenger would be replaced at Arsenal? Ten years.”

He claims that the pressure is greater at Chelsea because they have a billionaire owner in Roman Abramovich.

“That's the big difference which I've noticed in England, between the way Chelsea are treated and the discreet way that Wenger and Ferguson during all these years have managed to get through all the rainy spells.”

Zeus sent me this link and I had to share.

It's called an inferiority complex