Jose Mourinho has shown Arsene Wenger respect in an uncharacteristic act of kindness.
Although the tension between Wenger and Mourinho isn’t exactly new, after the Chelsea match the situation seemed to reach a head when the two managers refused to shake hands.
Chants directed at Chelsea during the Arsenal game insinuating that their style of play was ‘boring‘ also seemed to get to the Blues boss and there was a bit of back-and-forth in both the managers’ press conferences.
However, it seems hell might well have just frozen over, as Mourinho has said something quite nice about Wenger.
When speaking about long-serving managers, like Sir Alex Ferguson and Le Professeur, the Portuguese manager said that he doesn’t think anyone else will be able to emulate this again due the game being different now.
“No, because it is impossible in football. Impossible. Modern football, impossible,” he said.
Could this be said out of – dare I say it – respect? Or just an objective observation?
Mourinho also believes that after Wenger leaves, he’ll be the last of his kind and managerial eras will be a lot shorter. He didn’t elaborate on why he believes this.
He made it clear that although he wants to stay at Chelsea for as long as they ‘want him‘ but it won’t be his last managerial role by any means. Perhaps his comments regarding the longevity of modern managers are more a reflection of how he feels about his current club, rather than anything to do with their actual validity.