adminLONDON. — Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is often lauded for his honesty and willingness to take on opposing managers in a war of words, but as the 51-year-old accuses West Ham of “playing 19th Century football” in a 0-0 draw a Stamford Bridge, is the Special One becoming the Hypocritical One?
To help find out whether Mourinho is starting to fall foul to his own mind games, Sportsmail have put together a top 10 list of his most controversial quotes to date.
19th century Hammers
After his Chelsea side had an astonishing 39 attempts on West Ham’s goal and could still only claim a 0-0 draw, Mourinho called for Sam Allardyce’s team to stop playing in the past.
Speaking after the game, Mourinho said: “This is not Premier League, this is not the best league in the world. This is football from the 19th Century.
“The only thing I could bring was a Black and Decker [tool] to destroy the wall.
“A football match is about two teams playing and this match was only one team playing and another team not playing.”
Fergie’s new foe
The Portuguese manager truly burst onto the international scene after his Porto side knocked Manchester United out of the Champions League in 2004 thanks to a 90th minute Costinha goal which saw Mourinho sprint the length of the Old Trafford touchline in celebration.
After what would be the first of many duels with United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, Mourinho claimed:
“I understand why he [Ferguson] is a bit emotional. He has some top players in the world and they should be doing a lot better than that.
“You would be sad if your team gets as clearly dominated by opponents who have been built on 10% of the budget.”
Parking the bus
After his new Chelsea side were frustrated by a solid Tottenham performance which saw a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge in 2004, Mourinho coined a new phrase that has since stuck in the Premier League.
A frustrated Mourinho said: “Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal.
“Sometimes when you are a big club, a very small club comes to your stadium. Tottenham got a point they shouldn’t.
“We wanted to play. They didn’t. We wanted to score.
“They didn’t. Every time they just kicked the ball away.
“It is frustrating for me, my players, for every Chelsea supporter and for every football supporter. We finished with all our strikers on. You don’t finish with so many attackers on if the other team are also trying to win it.
“The next time, instead of having William Gallas and Alexei Smertin on the bench, I will have Adrian Mutu and Arjen Robben. I don’t need defenders.”
‘Voyeur’ Wenger
Growing increasingly frustrated with Arsene Wenger’s comments about Chelsea’s results, Mourinho decided to attack the Arsenal boss with possibly his most controversial comment to date back in 2005.
“I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.
“He’s worried about us, he’s always talking about us. It’s Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea. I might be worried if my team made a defensive mistake. I shouldn’t be worried about what Arsenal did at Tottenham. They are always speaking about the other families.
“I don’t know if he wants my job, I don’t know. He loves Chelsea.”
Barcelona battles
In 2005, Mourinho created huge controversy surrounding Chelsea’s Champions League tie against Barcelona. Following the first leg, in which Didier Drogba was sent off by referee Anders Frisk, Mourinho accused Barca boss Frank Rijkaard of following the official into the dressing room.
It was an accusation that was officially followed up by Chelsea and sadly was the catalyst to Frisk’s retirement from refereeing.
Writing in a column for newspaper Dez Record, Mourinho said: “When Didier Drogba was sent off (after half-time) I wasn’t surprised.’
“I would like Frisk as the ref [for the second leg]. Perhaps he would help us like the way he helped [Barcelona] in Spain.” Whilst at Real Madrid, Mourinho continued his ongoing feud with Barcelona during a number of huge La Liga clashes and Champions League meetings.
In 2011, Mourinho claimed that his Madrid team were preparing to play with ten men as he believed it was inevitable that they would get a man sent off in the Nou Camp during a Champions League semi-final.
“I have to train with 10 men [to prepare for the Barcelona semi-final], how to play with 10 men, because I go there with Chelsea, I finish with 10, I go there with Inter, I finish with 10 and I have to train to play with 10 men because it can happen again.” — Mailonline.
Online Reporter