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Wenger talks about respect, but shows none in latest incident with Mourinho

I've ignored a fair amount of handshakes in my time.  Especially of the post-match variety.  Some dude just spent the previous 90 minutes kicking the living daylights out of me, my ankles, and my knees — and we're certainly not talking about professional or even semi-professional level here — and he comes up all gleeful and grinning afterwards to wash it all away with a handshake?  I don't think so, buddy.  [Fun] off.

I realize this isn't the nicest, most graceful behaviour on my part.  I haven't regretted all of them, but a few I wish I could take back and re-do.  That's not to say I'm haunted by them or anything like that, but I've made an effort to be nicer at times.  Here's one thing I've never done however: talk about respect from others after showing none towards them.

"I shook a few hands today after the game, but there's nothing special there. I believe in a job where you have to respect people and respect everybody."

-Arsene Wenger; source: World Soccer Talk

You mean showing respect like you did by snubbing Mourinho, twice, after the match?  Not only did Wenger book it down the tunnel at the final whistle — ok, maybe it was an urgent call — but then quite publicly ignored the Chelsea manager a second time as well.

We could sit here and recount who started what and when.  We might be here for a while, for we have roughly eleven years of material to work with.  We could even say that maybe Mourinho was looking to make a spectacle out of it, to draw the attention to himself and his insistence to shake the hand of every Arsenal player (most of whom, it seems, were quite happy to do so and to receive the personal plaudits).  And obviously no one's obliged to shake anything from anyone at any time.  But to then have the gall to talk about respect afterwards?  That's next level [shoe] from the Arsenal manager.

Some might say, almost as Mourinho-esque as his tactics.

"You see the images, you see where I am. (I was) there for the winners, to wait for them in a point where you only miss me if you want to miss me."

"Every Arsenal player came in my direction, which was the easiest thing to do. If other people didn't come in my direction, that's not a problem, that's not a story, that's not the end of the world."

-Jose Mourinho; source: World Soccer Talk

On a related note, you might see some make a big deal out of Jose throwing his medal into the crowd.  But, as we know, he does this all the time, even when he wins.

"I don't want the medal. I don't keep the ones when I win, imagine the ones when I lose.  The kid was there, an Arsenal kid and I think it's a good memory for him. His team wins and he takes a medal from the losers."

-Jose Mourinho; source: ESPN

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