‘Best coaches are the ones with zero defeats’ – Mourinho takes sly dig at Arteta

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has taken a sly dig at 

Arsenal’s decision to hire Mikel Arteta as their new head 

coach, saying clubs now think the best candidates are the 

ones with ‘zero defeats’ rather than 'more victories.'

“The only point I can find, and it is for us to laugh a little 

bit, is that years ago the best managers were the guys 

with more victories and now the best is the guy with the 

fewest defeats,” he said.

“So, Ancelotti has three Champions Leagues, won the 

league in Italy, France and England and won cups here 

and there – but Ancelotti has lost, I don’t know, 200 

matches?

“I have lost 150-180 – Carlo is a little bit older than me. I 

think now it is not about how much you won, it is about 

the matches we didn’t lose. So, probably the best 

managers now are the managers with zero defeats.

“The only reason I can understand is that they look 

through the CVs and see guys with more defeats and 

guys with less defeats, so guys with less defeats are 

given the job. I cannot find another reason.”

Mourinho has plenty of trophies to his name and feels 

confident he can take Spurs one step further than his 

predecessor Pochettino did and win silverware for the 

north London club.

“If you don’t win, it is better being close to winning than 

to be far away,” he said. “Tottenham were close to 

winning the league when Leicester won, were close to 

winning the Champions League last season and close 

to winning the League Cup when I played against 

Tottenham.

“Of course, we are going to try [to take the next step]. It’s 

not my profile, or my DNA to be comfortable with 

‘almost’. I never liked very much the almost.”