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Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho Do Not Need a Truce
By Josh Sippie
No two managers in the game of football have a more tumultuous history than Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger. The two do not like each other and they make no point to hide their mutual dislike.
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After the Community Shield, Arsene Wenger bolted down the tunnel and Jose Mourinho turned his back to anyone that may have come to shake his hand. We knew that no handshake was going to happen, but the extra measures the two took to make sure that no handshake happened were incredibly noticeable.
Given the events that unfolded, former Arsenal man Martin Keown is calling for a mediation to sit the two down and broker a “truce.”
“At the end of the day it is about respect.” Keown said via the Daily Star. “I hope the LMA chairman Richard Bevan gets these two guys together and they shake hands. We had a good game and at the end it was spoilt because they didn’t shake hands.”
I, for one, did not think any less of the game because the two did not shake hands. I really don’t care if they shake hands, bow to each other, curtsy or whatever else they may want to do, the game is about the players on the field, not the coaches on the side lines who can sometimes turn into sideshow clowns.
What we saw at the Community Shield was the two best teams in the league going toe to toe and it was an invigorating game despite what you may hear from Jose Mourinho. What followed the game was a media outburst and countless replays of the two managers skipping the formalities of a handshake. It really is not that big of a deal if not blown out of proportion. The players shook hands, hugged, exchanged shirts and the managers did not.
Wenger and Mourinho have a massive history that cannot simply be overcome with a handshake. Of course it all came to a boiling point when Wenger and Mouinho met for the first time last year. Tensions flared after some questionable tackles and the Frenchman shoved the Portuguese man rather firmly.
Nothing became of it other than an entertaining video clip.
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Is this all kind of petty? Probably. Two men who have had so much success in the league should have some base respect for each other, but I think in the grand scheme they do respect each other. However that does not mean they have to like each other, and you cannot force that.
Expecting Mourinho and Wenger to ever have a relationship like Sir Alex Ferguson and Wenger is unrealistic. Ferguson and Wenger were two very similar people with similar strategies. Mourinho and Wenger are not. The Portuguese manager has picked up so many enemies throughout his career because of how abrasive he can be that it really is not shocking that he has made one more in Wenger.
Sam Wallace of the Independent said it perfectly, stating:
"“No one would argue that Mourinho and Wenger set an example for sportsmanship on Sunday, but it simply told us that two inflexible personalities, set in opposition and obsessed with winning, are likely to throw up some awkward moments. The only problem is our failure to recognise that, however squeamish some get about it, the rivalry is germane to the competition itself.”"
Wallace is absolutely correct in this regard. What Mourinho and Wenger have is by no means threatening to the fabric of the game. That is giving their feud way too much credit. If anything, it is an added entertainment. The two are both so obsessed with winning, particularly against each other, that tensions are going to inevitably reach boiling points rather frequently.
Keown is right in saying that it is a pinch sad that two grown men cannot work through their mutual disgust, but Wallace is more accurate in the overall scheme of this ordeal. The two are so different and so committed to winning with their own ways that any feud’s between the two are not so much the clashing’s of two grown men, but two distinct philosophies within the sport.
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