Chelsea manager a bully, says ex-Arsenal goalie
MADRID/LONDON: Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is trying to ease the pressure on himself with his regular jibes at Premier League counterparts.
Mourinho’s latest target was Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whom he labelled on Friday a “specialist in failure”, and the Portuguese irritated Pellegrini last week when he suggested City were not operating within UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
“Mourinho can say what he likes,” Pellegrini said in an interview with Spanish sports daily Marca published on Saturday.
“His statements are an attempt to ease the pressure and transfer it to another team,” added the Chilean, who also clashed with Mourinho when they were coaching in La Liga.
“I don’t think there’s much point in attaching too much importance to it,” Pellegrini said.
“A lot of the time it is hard not to give in and respond, but to enter into the cycle of personal responses doesn’t seem right or good.
“If other coaches want to avoid pressure in case they don’t win anything and generate an atmosphere of little responsibility that’s their business.”
City are three points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea with a game in hand and they beat the London club in the fifth round of the FA Cup later on Saturday 2-0.
Chelsea won 1-0 at City in the league at the start of the month, when Pellegrini was missing a number of key players through injury.
In his first season in charge since leaving Malaga, Pellegrini said his free-scoring team had not yet reached the level he was aiming for.
“I know that it is my first year but that doesn’t take away the pressure,” he said.
“On the contrary, I like it,” he added.
“It’s true that we have to improve in many areas. The first year is when you dissect the team, it’s weaknesses and strengths, and you get an idea of what you need.”
City host Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson said, on Sunday, that Mourinho is “disrepectful” and a “bully” for his description of Wenger.
Mourinho was hitting back at the Arsenal manager’s claims that the Portuguese coach was playing down Chelsea’s title credentials because of a “fear to fail”.
“I think at it’s best it’s disrespectful, at it’s worst despicable,” Wilson told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I find him boring in the extreme.”
Mourinho, who is in his second spell in charge of Chelsea having in rejoined the club in June, has wound up a number of Premier League managers this season.
“I think it’s personal,” continued Wilson, who made 308 appearances for Arsenal.
“To say West Ham play 19th century football, to give Manuel Pellegrini the abuse he has.
“This is a weekend when we honour a gent – Tom Finney – I don’t like bullies.”
Mourinho and Wenger have endured a fractious relationship since the Portuguese coach called Wenger a “voyeur” in 2005 after the Frenchman repeatedly spoke about Chelsea in the media.
Wilson would like to see the end of the verbal sniping between the two and believes that Mourinho should model his behaviour on former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly.
“He (Mourinho) is a hugely talented, amazing manager but a self-publicist and it’s mainly inaccurate,” Wilson said.
“I like people who have within them some humility as well,” he added.
“Bill Shankly was, in his day, like Jose Mourinho. He took every opportunity to psyche you out.
“He would get at you, but in a lovely, sort of competitive way.” (Reuters)