Matthaus: "I Am The Best"
Lothar Matthaus has once again sparked uproar and controversy in the football world, by claiming that he is the best current manager in the game. He has only been back in management since 2012, but has had great success with Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, and Italian giants AC Milan. This comes in the wake of rumours that Matthaus may be looking to take a break from management at his current post with Europa League winners AC Milan.
Many who know Matthaus have said how he has told them about a great tiredness after an exhausting two seasons with three different teams in three different countries. He rose to success by winning four trophies in 2012-13 with Sporting CP, winning every game in the process. He then moved to England, and joined Manchester United late in 2013, but was unsettled, and left just three months later to replace the sacked Pellegrini as AC Milan boss. He staged a big recovery at Milan, and managed to finish as runners-up to Juventus, and also win the Europa League against Lille in Turin. Many expected him to build on this success and win the title with Milan this season, especially after making key signings in the summer, such as Antoine Greizmann from Sociedad. He took over Chile, and started well with them, before suffering his first loss in over two years away to Spain in September.
It was indeed after one of his Chile games that Matthaus has made this bold claim about being the best of them all. He had just watched his side stage a good comeback to win 2-1 against Australia, before taking a press conference post-match. One journalist oddly asked how Matthaus thought he compared to some of the other great managers, to which the German manager replied "I certainly don't think that I am one of the greatest managers of all time just yet. I've only been successful for the past couple of years, whereas some of the greats have been in jobs for years and years, accumulating great success. I want to emulate that in my career, and especially here at Milan. I think here at Milan I have bought youth to really dominate world football over the next few years, and I want to be here to see it happen. I think with me at the helm we can certainly accomplish greatness. Onto your question, I think right now, I am the best manager in the world of football at this present moment. Sure there's manager's like Conte who will win the league every year, but once you get the hang of that, it's easy. What I did last season with Milan was difficult, taking us from 6th in February to 2nd at the end of the season, and also winning the Europa League. Lille are a tough side, but we managed to beat them without too much difficulty. I still think I can improve as a manager, but I'm not quite sure how to achieve it just yet."
After this press conference, angry managers and players took to Twitter to tweet their outrage at the comments made by Matthaus. Players such as Joey Barton was one of the main culprits to this, after typing out at least six strongly-worded tweets, only to have his account blocked after several Rossoneri fans reported the former Newcastle midfielder. Many managers, however, tweeted their respect for Matthaus both as a player and as a manager, and spoke of their desire to continue his success as a manager.
