Jose Mourinho has been branded a ‘boring bully’ for his attack on Arsene Wenger by Arsenal legend Bob Wilson.
The Chelsea manager was also called ‘despicable’ and ‘disrespectful’ by the 72-year-old for calling Wenger a ‘specialist on failure’.
Wilson, who played more than 300 games for Arsenal between 1963 and 1974, said Mourinho should behave like the ‘gent’ Sir Tom Finney, who died on Friday aged 91, rather than attack Wenger.
Previous: Jose Mourinho labelled Arsene Wenger 'a voyeur' during his last spell in the Premier League
‘I think at best it was disrespectful, at worst despicable to be so dismissive of a genuinely good guy and a footballing man, whose presence in England in 17-18 years has opened eyes and ears and created wonderfully entertaining sides,’ Wilson told BBC Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.
‘It’s obviously not the first time Mourinho has singled Arsene out. He called him a voyeur which is a disgusting claim and thankfully on that occasion he - although belatedly - he did apologise.
‘I think it’s personal, he is hugely talented, amazing manager Mourinho but I find him boring at the moment.
‘This is a weekend when we honour a gent - Tom Finney, Sir Tom – and I don’t like bullies.’
Bully boy: Jose Mourinho has described his Arsenal counterpart as 'a specialist in failure'
He added: ‘I like people who have within them some humility as well. Shanks was in a way like Jose Mourinho. It was every opportunity to just psyche you out or to come out with things.
‘On a personal basis, I came out of Loughborough University and I got thrown into the Arsenal first team. I was putting tickets on the door when he took one look at me, knew exactly that I was an amateur school teacher, and went to the Arsenal official, “Are Arsenal at full-strength tonight or is that Bob Wilson playing?”
‘In 1971, the day before we played in the (FA Cup) final against Liverpool, he was the only guy in the (Wembley) stadium as we looked at it and as we went by (the lads said), “See you tomorrow Mr Shankly”. (He said), “Aye, good luck son”.
‘As I went past and I said, “See you tomorrow Mr Shankly.” He said, “Aye, Bob. Nightmare pitch for goalkeepers eh?”
‘He was getting at you, but he was getting at you in a really lovely sort of competitive way.’
Lord Sebastian Coe spoke out in defence of the Chelsea manager, stating he is only merely answering the questions put to him by the media.
The Team GB boss told Sportsweek: 'This is an interesting contradiction.
'All he's doing is answering the questions that he gets asked. The manager appears before the press before a Premier League or Champions League game...he gets asked the questions.
'I'm not sure these are mind games, I know they're not mind games.
'He's answering the questions he's being asked and he's actually doing it with honesty.'
He said: 'I think we were both acutely conscious that anything we did.
'You could probably count the number of direct quotes that ever came out from either of us about each other on the fingers of one hand.
'We were just acutely conscious, it didn't really matter what we said it would get taken out of context.
'If you'd asked me at the time 'Did you think about him', and the standard answer was 'No', he'd probably say 'We were focused on what we were doing'.'
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