Mourinho om Vieria och andra ämnen
José Mourinho har inga tvivel om att Arsenal har en plan för att klara sig utan Patrick Vieira och menar att även de andra topplagen blivit bättre.
I dag reser Mourinho till Portugal med truppen för träningsmatch mot Benfica i morgon. Innan dess kommenterade han läget i sin egen trupp och hos en del andra lag. Här följer oöversatta citat.
Om Chelseas trupp:
"In this moment my squad is better than last year. Last season we had only one left-back. Now we have the best left-back in Spain, and one of the two best in England in Mr Eriksson's opinion. We have one of the best strikers in the world in Crespo and we have in Carlton Cole a young boy full of motivation to be one of the best. Last season we had three strikers, now we have four."
Om Manchester United och några andra utmanare:
"They (United) will be better. Man United has a great goalkeeper. Park is a good player, he's come with a lot of motivation because he comes from Asia and can create a big impact in English football. Liverpool is signing everybody, it's serious, they are top of the signings, very good players. Newcastle is the same, Parker, Emre. Everybody improved. But our squad is better, no doubt."
Om Arsenal efter Vieira:
"He's (Vieira) a big player, Arsenal was a very happy club to have such a player, and Juventus is also a lucky club to have a player like him. He was with a big club, he's joined another big club, that's life in football. I think they (Arsenal) are not stupid. They have in their manager a very intelligent player. I don't think they did this just by instinct or without thinking, discussing and analysing the situation, so if they do this it's because around the corner they have another solution and they think it's better for them. I didn't know he was available, and I think Arsenal wouldn't sell to Chelsea. If I was selling a very good player I wouldn't sell to Arsenal or Manchester United. I had a chance to know him once at a charity dinner and he's for me a very nice person. But no more chances for me to coach him because he's 29 or 30 and has a five year contract with Juventus. So no chance.
Om att sälja och köpa spelare i Vieiras ålder:
"I think players are like managers, there are no young managers or old managers, young players or old players. Just good and bad. Maldini is 36, nobody is better than him. Some players are 20 and good. We gave a new contract to Makelele because he is better than he was two seasons ago, and the way we analyse Makelele as a player and an athlete, we feel he has two or three years at the top left in him. When we were in Porto the first season we won the UEFA Cup, the Championship, Portuguese Cup and Portuguese Super Cup, and we sold our top scorer (Helder Postiga till Tottenham). I think he then didn't score more than one single goal. The offer was very good, and we had in the corner waiting one solution that we thought could be better. You sell if you have a solution in the corner or an internal solution. They (Arsenal) may think Flamini and Fabregas is the solution. At Porto we had in the corner Beni McCarthy, and the next season he was the top scorer. Arsenal have signed a very good player, the boy from Stuttgart (Alexander Hleb). They lost Vieira but I don't believe they don't have a big answer."
Om försäljningen av Chelseaspelare:
"This season in making money in transfers I think we are in the top list because we made very good money, Scott Parker, Forssell, Kezman. We made very good money."
Om Alex Fergusons kommentar om att man inte längre har råd att förlora några matcher för att vinna ligan:
"When you look back to the two last seasons where Arsenal were champions without one defeat and Chelsea were with one defeat, if it keeps going it's very difficult to win the Championship and lose matches. But things change in football, and who's to say that this year the champions won't lose four or five matches. But it's a very good starting point to say we won't lose matches. For me to lose four or five matches and win the League is not a problem."
Om Paul Jewells smickrande kommentarer häromdagen:
"He's been very nice to me because we had just a conversation when he asked me my opinion about some Portuguese players because normally I have to know them better than anybody else. If a colleague asks for advice and I know them I will give them my personal opinion, in the same way as I would try to find some inside information if I wasn't sure about some players."
