Jose Mourinho just cannot help himself.
Not only did he pull off the swoop of the century by managing to prise Alexis Sanchez out of Man city’s grip and tie him down to a contract at Man United, he couldn’t wait to stick the knife into Arsenal.
The Gunners received Henrikh Mkhitaryan in return for the Chilean star but Jose’s sharp comments today put Arsenal firmly back in their place.
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Alexis swapped London for Manchester and managed to increase his wages to a reported £500,000 per week.
The financial increase is significant but Mourinho made it clear there are other factors which will not please Arsenal fans at all.
And we are sure he enjoyed making this barbed comment hoping no one would notice.
“Alexis changed from a fantastic club to a giant club and Mkhitaryan changed for a fantastic club,” Mourinho told reporters at Carrington earlier.
While he offers some false praise for Arsenal as a ‘fantastic club’ he makes it clear he does consider the North London team as a ‘giant’ club.
Naughty, Jose.
Mourinho was also happy to explain at length just how good Sanchez was and what a signing it is for the Red Devils.
“I think everybody knows what a players he is, I think everybody knows what he did at Arsenal, I try not to speak what he did before in Spain and Italy but in the Premier League he has shown the quality he has,” waxed Mourinho.
“We got one of the best attacking players in the world and he’s very important for us because we want the best possible players.”
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After enjoying his time winding up Arsenal fans up and down the country, it was very pleasing that Mourinho actually showed a little bit of humility in his summary of Mkhitaryan’s time at Old Trafford.
“I believe Mkhi will be even better than he was with us, it’s a good move for everybody, I’m also happy for Mkhitaryan,” he said.
“Could I have got more from his talent? Maybe, could he have given a little more to adapt to us? Maybe.”
For Mourinho, it normally comes down to whether the player showed their maximum commitment and more importantly worked back defensively.
But it is big of the United boss to consider that he could have done more to bring out the Armenian’s talents.
That must have been very hard for you to admit Jose.