Mourinho's Mind Games

Failing to find a Sunday Telegraph at the newsstands I had to settle for The Sunday Times today. In it, some prat called Hugh McIllvanney wrote a 'Mouronhic' article headlined "Folly of Poison Arrows" in which he had a good go at Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.

He summed up by writing "... Chelsea looked thoroughly capable of travelling all the way to a coronation as champions of Europe. But how truly glorious can the journey be if they and their manager behave as they did in Catalonia?" The journey, Mr McImatwat, is irrelevant. When Italy won the world cup, while the rest of the world was whining about that 'racaille' Zidane, they were having the mother of all parties. They didn't give a rat's arse about 'the journey' - they were world champions. And Jose understands that. Moreover, for those of us who read the Spanish press (or the Catalunyan press in this case) and are fully aware of the base insults thrown at Jose, then his comments seem more than fair in retaliation. British commentators often seem to exist in a vacuum, a kind of reverse racist stance where they bend over backwards to laud the furrigners who are portrayed as 'simple and pure' and ignore their cheating and twisted machinations. Jose worked at Barca for a couple of years and knows exactly what they're about. Yet when he stands up for himself he gets slated.

When 'the special one' shoots his poisoned arrows he's taking specific aim. This seems to be overlooked by many commentators. Jose wants Chelsea to be the number one club in the world. When he looks at who is standing in the way of this ambition who does he see that looms largest? Why, Barca of course. And who is the manager of Barca? Why, it's Mr Phlegm himself Rijkaard, a man who Jose knows to be, shall we say, a bit of a sensitive petal. So let's wind him and the Barca players up, knock 'em off their perch, shake 'em up, get 'em annoyed.

All the feedback we get from players and acquaintances of Jose is that he's a good bloke - a good man manager. Intelligent, funny and articulate. If he's playing ugly with Barca it's because he knows it works. Yet idiots like Hugh McTwaddle seem to believe this somehow negates the result. Where, pray, is 'the folly'? Who came out ahead in the two matches? Who is the better manager?

The Sunday Times bills Hugh Mcmoron as 'The voice of sport'. Let's hope that voice is extinguished soon.

On a final note, whilst I'm still angry with the pap written in the MSM a word about Barcelona CF. These 'cabrones' are the sort of club who are so cynical they wear UNICEF as their sole sponsor on their shirts. Do you honestly think the club and players give a monkeys about the starving children in the world? If they truly cared they'd give up at least a half of their swollen salaries to maybe actually save a few kids. It's not as if it's difficult to get by on only a million euros a year is it? But no. Instead, it's just a cheap gesture designed primarily to make them look caring and lovely and sweet and get FIFA / UEFA on their side and make other teams look bad. Barca are a cycnical club with a sick credo and a sick victimhood complex. Screw 'em.