Jose Mourinho’s antics are no longer interesting. The Portuguese boss has lost the x-factor that made him box-office when he first rocked up on English soil back in 2004. A silver fox at the time, the media loved him, women wanted him and men wanted to be like him. His quips were great, his passion ferocious and his managerial nous impressive.We’re now almost nine years down the line and Mourinho is not so much ‘The Special One’… he’s more ‘The Repetitive One’, with his moaning, sniping and blatant tactics to distract from issues he’s concerned about – more overplayed than Take That on Heart.[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]But, he did have a point last night when speaking in the wake of his Man United team’s concerning draw at home to Hull City. Fielding the usual questions that come in the wake of such a result, Mourinho deflected attention towards Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, who had, on Tuesday night, screamed in the face of fourth official Neil Swarbrick. As quoted by The Guardian, he said:
“Don’t ask me questions that I cannot answer,†Mourinho said. “You know clearly that I am different. I am different. The rules for me are different. I am different in everything.
“I watch my team play in a hotel, I was forbidden to go to the stadium, my assistant had a six-match stadium ban and he didn’t touch anyone.
“Yesterday one fourth official told a manager: “I enjoy very much your passionâ€â€™. So do what you want to do. Today I was told, ‘Sit down or I have to send you to the stands’ so everything is different for me. So don’t ask me questions that put me in a difficult situation.â€
Mourinho’s previous record of meandering away from the pressing subject doesn’t help when dissecting his comments, nor does the fact that just minutes previously he stormed out of a post-match interview with BBC Sport. Yet he really does have a point.
Just imagine the fume had Mourinho been the man aggressively shouting at an official. Being so up in his face that he must have intimidated him and had an effect on his ability to contribute to an impartial footballing contest. Mourinho, we have to remember, was handed a touchline ban earlier this season for kicking a water bottle in frustration. Klopp, meanwhile, is lauded for his “passion†by the very man he actively bellowed at.
The facts stack up further in Mourinho’s favour thanks to other incidents. He was handed a one-match stadium ban in 2015 for abusing Jon Moss, while his partner in crime, assistant manager Rui Faria, was banned from entering the stadium for six games for his reaction to a loss at the hands of Sunderland a year previous.
We may not like Jose, but it’s hard to not feel sorry for him in this instance. Whereas Klopp is the darling of the media in the modern age, Mourinho is becoming yesterday’s news.
He has previous, it must be remembered, and lots of it. Bans and fines have been a common feature of the now Man United boss’ career, with the 49-year-old, having questioned officials’ integrity, been involved in some shady transfer dealings and gouged the eye of an opposing coach. On top of this, he even allegedly manoeuvred his away around a stadium ban by posing as a pair of dirty y-fronts.
But should his past indiscretions distract from this incident? Absolutely not. Klopp’s moment of madness on the Anfield touchline was embarrassing and, although not as extreme as Arsene Wenger’s just over a week previous, disrespectful.
Mourinho may be accused of taking attention away from an insipid Man United performance, yet had he done the same, there would be little talk of “passionâ€, there would be fines, headlines and yet another stick with which to beat him.
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