Mourinho comments in ‘poor taste’, says O’Neill

Ireland manager Martin O’Neill has jumped to defend his former foe Arsene Wenger in the wake of Jose Mourinho’s stinging criticism of the Arsenal boss.

Despite O’Neill enduring various spats with Wenger during his time as Aston Villa manager, the Derryman says it was ‘in poor taste’ for him to be branded a ‘specialist in failure’ by Mourinho.

The barb from the Chelsea manager was generally accepted to be in relation to Arsenal’s absence of trophies for the past eight seasons. O’Neill, however, speaking on Thursday night at a Question and Answer fundraiser for Limerick FC at Thomond Park, not only dismissed Mourinho’s claim but also accused him of double-standards when it came to recently slating West Ham’s tactics after they’d held Chelsea scoreless.