José Mourinho just spilled the tea on how he blocked Arsenal's dream transfer

Arsenal have had an okay transfer window so far, but what they're missing is a world-class attacker. Where they once harboured dreams of signing Vinícius Júnior from Real Madrid, José Mourinho has revealed the impact he had in crushing those dreams.

Mourinho had a personal phone call with Vini Jr, in which he convinced him to stay at Real Madrid. Essentially, he told the Brazil international that he would only know what leaving Real Madrid feels like if he chose to do that, and that should be enough of a deterrent.

José Mourinho kept Vinícius Júnior away from Arsenal

“I called Vini Jr," said Mourinho, and told him: Vini, where do you want to go? You only know Real Madrid. When you leave, then you’ll know what Real Madrid is. Don't go, it’s not worth it."

To this day, we don't know if Vini Jr even needed convincing. That whole saga seems like such a momentary blur now, and in hindsight, it happened much faster than it probably lasted.

There were conflicting reports from Spain and England, which is always expected to be the case. Being completely rational, Vini has never said a bad word about Real Madrid. If anything, he's only ever said amazing things about the club, but that obviously didn't dampen Arsenal fans' hopes at the time.

Now, though, we know for certain that Vini won't be joining Arsenal this summer. We probably knew that before the window started, but now it's close to finishing, it does feel like a blocked opportunity.

Mourinho has a long-standing rivalry with Arsenal. It doesn't help that throughout his career, he's managed all of Arsenal's three biggest rivals: Chelsea, Man United and Tottenham. Admittedly, Chelsea stands out by quite some distance among his other tenures, but still.

Most notably, he formed a rivalry with Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's best manager of all-time. When you disrespect Wenger, you disrespect Arsenal, and Mourinho did that one too many times for Arsenal fans' liking.

Still, in hindsight, you can respect the grind. The respect between Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp was painstakingly cringe and boring for the neutral. The same can probably be said for Guardiola and Mikel Arteta.

Part of football culture is overt rivalry. While that mostly takes place on the pitch or in the terraces, you can't help but stop and stare when it happens on the touchline.

Mourinho is without a doubt one of the best managers of all-time. While the future is promising at Arsenal, nobody can judge Vini Jr for picking the club he knows and loves.