It’s no secret that Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho hate each other.
While Wenger and Ferguson had ‘issues’ that were set aside when the latter retired, there was always an underlying mutual respect between the pair, pizzagate aside.
But between Wenger and Mourinho there is nothing but animosity.
Mourinho can’t stand the respect that Wenger receives for what he sees as a decade of failure. Building a club from scratch is not something Mourinho does, he prefers to burn them to the ground.
So on the day the Arrogant One finally got what he wanted and found himself at the helm of a club that is the antithesis of his own footballing philosophy, how funny it is that Ferguson was lavishing praise on the Arsenal manager?
Sadly, when I went to read the comments printed in various newspapers online, it seems he said them a while ago in preparation for the Champions League programme and not in the wake of the latest manager to follow in his huge footsteps.
Still, I doubt there’s a millimetre of Mourinho that will enjoy reading the United legend and figurehead saying nice things about the object of his twisted obsession.
“He’s [Wenger] been fantastic,” Ferguson said.
“Now he gets a lot of criticism, but I admire that that you’re not going to bend to the will of the critics. He stays with what he believes in. And I think people who do that are outstanding coaches.
“When you talk about consistency, Arsene’s never changed the way that his side has played. I think he inherited a team when he first came to Arsenal with Steve Bould and Martin Keown and Tony Adams – fantastic warriors – but his team evolved when they started getting players like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Emmanuel Petit, Sylvain Wiltord. There was a change in the culture of the team.
“They became a magnificent team and the particular experience that Arsene got with that team… he has never changed in the type of player he wants or the sort of play he wants. It’s always about penetration from runners off the ball, good passes into angles for the strikers.”
Jose Mourinho was officially announced as the Manchester United manager on Friday.
He has signed a three-year deal, allowing him just enough time to get United back in the top four, win the league, finish 9th, sell all their youngsters and get sacked.
[totally stole that joke from @Arsenalofka]