Jose Mourinho has described his old rival Arsene Wenger as a "sweet enemy" and insisted he regarded a man he once mocked as "one of the best football managers in the history of football".
Mourinho and Wenger frequently clashed in the Premier League, with Mourinho branding the long-time Arsenal manager a "specialist in failure" in 2014 when the Portuguese was in charge of Chelsea.
But Mourinho, sacked by Manchester United in December, has congratulated Wenger on receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Laureus World Sports Awards this week, and offered extensive praise for the Frenchman.
"I really enjoyed the competition but there were some episodes along the road that I don't like to say I regret it or should Mr Wenger regret it too because this is really part of our history and we cannot go back and delete them and they were part of our history and our club's history," he told Laureus Sport.
