FA call for truce

THE Football Association have urged Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to end their recent war of words.

FA chiefs yesterday telephoned senior figures at both clubs to stress the need for the two managers to restrain their future comments after an unseemly public spat.

Mourinho had branded Wenger a “voyeur” who’s obsessed with Chelsea after the Arsenal boss questioned whether the Blues had “lost a little bit of belief” with their draw at Everton and Carling Cup defeat by Charlton.

Wenger responded by calling Mourinho’s comments “out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful,” adding that “when you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes“.

The relationship between the two London clubs has been frosty since the Ashley Cole inquiry, together with the question marks placed by Wenger over Chelsea’s style of play and chief executive Peter Kenyon’s stated aim of eclipsing Arsenal as the capital’s leading club.

Mourinho, meanwhile, may have revealed he has been keeping a “120-page dossier” on Wenger’s perceived criticisms of Chelsea, but admitted it was “time to stop” after his own side’s Champions League defeat to Real Betis.

John Barnwell, the chief executive of the League Managers’ Association, had also urged Wenger and Mourinho to bring their “tit-for-tat” exchange to an immediate end.

Barnwell has not yet made contact with wenger or Mourinho, believing their Champions League commitments are more important than the spat.

“Arsene and Jose have responsibilities. I don’t expect them to shake hands but I expect them to put the thing to bed and let it rest, where it should be.

“They are both members of ours and highly respected, and we’re disappointed this has come out in the public domain.”

Although Wenger had threatened unspecified “action” against Mourinho, Mark Stephens, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent law firm and a specialist in media law and defamation, does not believe the matter will end in the courts. “The whole of this is starting to turn into the sort of ridiculous nonsense that we see before two heavyweight pugilists step into the ring.

“Ultimately the courts are not going to be where this ends up, I think the FA will step in to stop it,” Stephens said.