Jose Mourinho has made a bizarre dig at Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, suggesting the manager’s new contract shouldn’t happen at Real Madrid.
Following Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal contract extension last week, Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho made an unprompted remark about the situation in a press conference.
“Yesterday, I read something curious that shouldn’t happen at Madrid,” Mourinho said. “Mikel Arteta renewed his contract at Arsenal. He’s been there four or five years and said they’re still just starting and that there’s a lot to do.
“What might be normal for others isn’t here. Madrid has won so much that everything has a different magnitude.”
The comments may well have made sense in previous seasons, as it’s undeniably true that the expectations at Real Madrid and Arsenal were very different a few years ago.
But Arsenal have extended Arteta’s contract off the back of winning the Premier League and reaching the Champions League final. Real Madrid neither won their league nor reached the Champions League final last year.
In fact, Real Madrid’s sole achievement in 2025/26 was reaching the final of the Supercopa de Espana, and losing it to Barcelona. An achievement roughly comparably to Arsenal reaching the League Cup final, which Arteta also did in 2025/26.
If Real Madrid win the league and reach two finals this season, and then they sack Mourinho anyway, he can rightly suggest that his treatment would have been different at Arsenal.
As it stands, Arsenal are renewing Arteta’s contract because his team are outperforming Real Madrid despite all those high expectations in the Spanish capital.
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