Jose Mourinho said recently that he wants to be like Arsenal's long time manager, Arsene Wenger and stay at Chelsea for 17 years.
“Our last conversation was that I want to be here 17 years," he said.
"He has to teach me how. I respect him a lot and I have the feeling that he is the same in relation to me," he said.
Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger were nothing close to being friends during the Chelsea Manager's first reign at the club. Jose Mourinho digged at Wenger 2010, asking him to explain to the Arsenal supporters how he can't win a single, little trophy since 2005.
“He’s a nice guy,I respect him a lot and I will show my respect always. I wouldn’t bet for one single problem between us. I have had a chance to meet him much, much better when I left England. I started meeting him at the Euros, the World Cup. We had dinner.
When you are not in the same league and when you are not playing against each other, it is easier to know people, it is easier to go deeper. I enjoyed speaking with him about football. He is a person with a big culture, very open to give his opinion to things," he added
When asked if he could go eight years without a trophy, he said: "No, because of my mentality. I would feel strange. But you can do very good work for a club without winning lots of trophies, you can.
Memories in football are normally short, there is no long-term memory. People many times forget what people have done. I don't think he's affected by that. He's a big, experienced man, he has self-esteem, he knows what he did, he knows what he is doing.
"To have the respect like he has from his board is fundamental and it's not because of his nice face. It's because of the work he does and also because of the respect people have for him. So, for sure, he is happy to be there. As you know, he had all these chances to leave, all these good, important clubs interested in him, so when he refuses and he wants to stay at Arsenal it's because he loves it there. It's because he has expectations for the future."
Jose Mourinho surely picks what he learns, he doesn't want to do a "Wenger" by going eight years without winning a trophy but he wants to do a "Wenger" and stay at Chelsea for 17 years. Clever student, Mou.
Watch out Arsene, Jose can be a very dangerous student, willing and able to beat his teacher.