• Premier League

Mourinho was bad fit for Bayern

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is a big fan of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger © Getty Images

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Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says Jose Mourinho did not get a look in when Bayern Munich were looking for a new manager last summer.

The club were considering replacing Jupp Heynckes and managed to lure Pep Guardiola, having dismissed Mourinho as an option because he was "would not be the right fit" for the German giants.

Rummenigge, Bayern's executive chairman, says the club wanted to follow in the footsteps of Barcelona - something Roman Abramovich has wanted at Chelsea - and Mourinho was available with his Real Madrid tenure set to end.

"I believe Mourinho is a very good coach," Rummenigge told the Daily Mail. "But I am not convinced he would be the right fit for Bayern. There are many good coaches. We could maybe name 20 or 30, but we were all unanimous that we should go for Pep.

"We had a good coach with Jupp Heynckes but we had on the table whether to stay with Heynckes or go with someone else. We discussed it intensively.

"This was a unique chance to get the best and most popular coach in the world and we could not miss this chance.

"Money was not the reason Guardiola came to Munich. He could choose easily many clubs (who would have paid him more).

"He never named anyone but we know some English clubs were interested in him. He never gambled with this. He never spoke about money. Of course he is earning good money but I believe he could earn more in England than he does in Germany."

Mourinho's career is littered with controversy caused by outspoken outbursts, the latest of series of which have seen him engage in verbal battles with Arsene Wenger and Manuel Pellegrini.

The Chelsea manager spiky approach to management has caused him problems in the past, at Stamford Bridge and Madrid, and the contrast with the more publicly reticent Guardiola appears to be stark.

The differences with Wenger are similarly great, although Mourinho's refuses to accept Wenger is "Monsieur Polite" while he is "the bad guy". Whatever the reality, Rummenigge is a fan of the Frenchman.

"In England, there are many good coaches and I like Arsene," he said. "We were very close in the 1990s to signing him. He was managing Monaco. We were in discussions to bring him to Munich but he decided to go to Tokyo."

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