Known for his mind games, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho hit back hard on Arsene Wenger’s comments regarding Chelsea’s ‘fear of failure’ by calling Wenger a “specialist in failure” in a press conference in the Cobham training ground on Friday.
It all started when Arsene Wenger declared that it was Chelsea’s title to lose, and Mourinho was afraid of failing.
“It is very open, only Chelsea can lose it now because they are in front and all the other teams can win it. I’ve always said many teams are in it and it will be very tight until the end. It’s a fear to fail. If you’re not in the race you cannot lose it, if you declare yourself not in the race you cannot lose it, simple as that,” said Wenger.
When asked on what he thought about Wenger’s statement, Jose Mourinho was not shy to say exactly what he thought.
“He is a specialist in failure, I am not,” said Mourinho. “If he is right and I have a fear of failure it is because I don’t fail many times. So maybe he is right?
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“The reality is he’s a specialist because eight years without a piece of silverware, that is failure. If I did that in Chelsea I would leave London and not come back.”
On being asked whether if it was Chelsea’s title to lose, Mourinho replied: “The champions are Manchester United. They are the title-owner until the moment where mathematically they lose it. If they are not champions this season, and we all agree it is almost impossible for them to be, they lose the title, nobody else.”
“If supposedly he is right, and I am afraid to fail, it’s because I don’t fail many times,” he added.
When asked if he feared anything in football, he answered with a straight ‘No’.
“The reality is that he is a specialist, because eight years without a piece of silverware is failure. If I do that at Chelsea, I leave London and don’t come back”.
Mourinho then added that he doesn’t want Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to give him eight years to build a team, and that he would rather do that in the four years he has in his contract.
“I just want my contract of four years to do my work and after that, deserve or not deserve the next contract.”
Jose Mourinho concluded the interview with an update on team injuries with defenders Gary Cahill and John Terry set to miss Chelsea’s FA Cup tie with Manchester City.
“John (Terry) is not back and (Gary) Cahill is not. He was injured in the game at West Brom. He didn’t finish the training session.”
“He’s going for a scan to see whether he can play or not,” he concluded.