Jose Mourinho predicts trophy drought for Liverpool and Arsenal
Jose Mourinho may have moved to Spain, seemingly away from the Premier League drama, but the Special One does not forget easily and has launched an attack on former rivals, Liverpool and Arsene Wenger. Mourinho has given his prediction for the new Premier League season, writing off both Liverpool and Arsenal, saying conditions are too weak for either club to win silverware this season.
The former Chelsea manager didn’t get along too well with the rival managers, accusing Wenger of being a “voyeur” and harboured a general dislike for Liverpool’s Benitez, whose team always clashed with the Blues in the Champions League’s latter stages. It seems time doesn’t heal old wounds, as Mourinho dismissed Arsenal’s young teams title bid and said he had left Benitez, who took over Inter this summer, with a “dream job”.
Mourinho said: “It is very difficult work for Roy to do it with Liverpool as, over the last years, they have been getting worse, worse and worse”. He was of course referring to Liverpool’s nightmare start to the season. The Reds drew their opening game against Arsenal and lost 3-0 to Manchester City on Monday. Mourinho said Benitez had left Liverpool in a really poor condition, for Roy Hodgson to pick up the pieces, as he attempts to keep things steady on and off the pitch.
Current co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett have done very well to drive the club into debt, higher than when they took over in 2007. Hodgson took over knowing full well that a change in the ownership, which seems inevitable but fruitless at the moment, would have an effect on his position. He is in an inflexible situation as he is trying to rebuild a progressively declining team while his future hangs in the balance.
Mourinho believes the defeat against Manchester City was just the beginning of the challenges Hodgson will face at Liverpool in the race to the top four for Champions League qualification. He said, “The Liverpool of 2004 was better than the Liverpool of 2005, 2005 was better than 2006 and 2006 better than 2007. And they arrive at a situation now where, but for Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Pepe Reina, Fernando Torres, if his head is there, it is very difficult for Roy to make Liverpool champions.”
“He needs time and it’s not easy because I don’t think they went in the right direction”, Mourinho said about Hodgson. The Portuguese manager revealed that he believed that Hodgson could bring Liverpool out of their slump, but he needed time. The fact that despite not qualifying for the Champions League, Liverpool had managed to retain two of their star players, Captain Steven Gerrard and Spanish striker Fernando Torres, says a lot about Hodgson’s managerial abilities.
When asked what he thought about Arsenal’s shot at the title, Mourinho said, “I don’t think Arsenal can win. Year after year it looks like they will but no. It’s always the same type of comment, it’s a young team, it will be next season. I remember we played them in a Carling Cup final [in 2007] with a team of young boys, but they are no longer a team of young boys. They are now a team of 25, 26, 27-year-olds. Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Gael Clichy, Alex Song, Bacary Sagna – they’re not a team of kids any more, they’re of an age to win things, but I don’t think they will do it”.
His favourites for the 2010-2011 Season are League Champions Chelsea, runner-ups Manchester United and big spending Manchester City. Chelsea and Manchester United have class, but Manchester City he picked solely because of their lavish summer spending. City, who have been accused of “kamikaze spending”, by Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, landed most of their planned signings because of their dominance in the market and with their convincing win over Liverpool on Monday, they seem like serious title contenders.
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