Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho claims he prepares his clubs for future success, while suggesting long-term managers, such as Arsene Wenger, can be more damaging.
Mourinho believes that although he only spends a few years at a club, he always leaves them with the structure to be successful in the future.
“I prepare clubs for success. I think I prepare clubs in a way where, when I leave, the new manager arrives at a top club. And that is not short-term even if you leave,” he said, reports the Mirror.
“If you’re in a club one or two years – or any job – if you leave a structure to be even more successful without you than with you, that’s not short-term. That’s long-term.”
This sounds an awful lot like Mourinho taking credit for something he wasn’t that responsible for. He didn’t stop there, either. The 54-year-old went on to claim that managers who spend a long time at one club actually damage its future and leaves them in a position to fail.
“Short-term can be the guy that is at one club 10 to 20 years and when you leave the club, it’s ready for failure,” he added.
There are only two recent examples of a manager staying a big club for a long time: Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson. Not everything Mourinho says is a dig, but he has often talked about Wenger’s long stint as Arsenal manager in the past.
I feel he’s incapable of talking about other clubs without alluding to the Gunners or the long-serving French coach. Every time he talks himself up, he always does at someone else’s expense.
Nobody knows what state Arsenal will be in once Wenger decides to call it a day, but I daresay the manager will leave the club on good terms, something Mourinho has rarely been able to do.