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Cruyff launches new attack on Mourinho

24/10/2005

Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff has reignited his bitter war of words with Jose Mourinho by saying the Chelsea boss needs to learn to respect his rivals.

Cruyff slammed the Portuguese coach last season for prioritising winning above entertaining the paying spectator and for deploying what the Dutchman deemed to be a boring style of football.

But while Chelsea have gone on to defy their boring tag with an impressive unbeaten start to the new season, Cruyff, the former Barcelona coach, has now turned his attack to their apparent lack of respect for other teams.

"I don't sympathise with coaches who put results above everything else, who only think about themselves and not about football itself," he said.

"I would happily teach [Mourinho] not just about winning and playing well, but also about winning respect from people, and that is more important than the titles you win.

"At his age he has had enough time to learn about winning and losing. Winning the respect of people is a different story."

Mourinho responded to Cruyff's first comments by suggesting the Dutchman try his hand at coaching in the Premiership, saying that only once he had tried that would he be in a position to comment on how best to play in England's top division.

To this in particular, Cruyff said today: "I am happy to hear that Mourinho would like me to teach him a few of the things that I stand for.

"I could teach him how to play very well, just like at Ajax in the 70s or Barcelona in the 90s."

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