Jose Mourinho came to England as a likeable character, willing to speak his mind and tell a situation as it was. He began to believe a bit too much of his own publicity, acting up in the press conferences and starting to make some embarrassing comments. Worst of all was his insults directed at Ronaldo, where he claimed our winger was badly educated, of a poor class, with a disadvantaged upbringing.
Mourinho is clearly no longer the cool, calm and collected man that first arrived in the Premiership, obviously feeling the heat at the moment. Less than 24 hours after being drawn against Manchester United, he is already trying to get the ball rolling with the mind games.
Wayne Rooney was the centre of controversy (for a change, right? With this obsessed nation having little else to talk about than United, apparently) a couple of weeks ago after an incident in our final group stage match against Aalborg.
Mourinho has today tried to compare this incident with that of Michael Essien on Didi Hamann when the Ghanaian midfielder was charged with ‘gross unsporting conduct’ following a review from UEFA. After committing what could have been a career ending challenge, UEFA rightly banned Essien, meaning he missed Chelsea’s matches against Barcelona, as they were dumped out of the Champions League.
“When I was with Chelsea something really extraordinary happened when through TV evidence Essien was suspended for three games and didn’t play our two games against Barcelona,” said Mourinho. “The same thing didn’t happen last week with Rooney, so he will be available to play against us in the knockout stage. But I accept all this which is a consequence of the rules.”
The problem with Mourinho’s comparison is that in the case of Rooney, the so-called attacked player pleaded on Rooney’s behalf. He asked for UEFA not to ban our player and claimed the TV replays made the incident look a lot worse than it actually was. Hamann, grateful to still be playing the game, obviously was not saying the same of Essien following their clash.
Mourinho is going to have to do a lot better than this if he wants to keep up with Sir Alex Ferguson where mind games are concerned!
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i am Roo’s biggest fan, but mourinho is right. it was a red card challenge, and the other one was even worse. the evidence was clear, it just doesnt matter what the aalborg player said afterwards.
i got here first
Maureen, we will let he footie do the talking .
he did it again. after saying ronaldo and now rooney. u aren’t going to be our manager u dick shit
He will our next manager and he learnt the art of mind games from SAF
saf wanabe
He will be the next manager… im 99% sure of it..
I think he will be our next manager.
Fuck off ‘he’ll be our next manager’.
If I have to buy a sniper rifle and shoot the cunt myself to make sure it i’nt so, then I bleedin’ well will!
@ EastStandManc, who would you like to see take over from SAF?
mourinho is a fag
@ Socamad: Someone who understands the United ethos. Not someone who prides themselves on a packed 5-man workhorse midfield hoping to grind out 1-nillers.
God help us when SAF retires ’cause there’s no-one capable of filling his boots. The only one who could come close to fulfilling the attacking philosophy and who has any sort of high-calibre experience/tactical nous is Guus Hiddink, but how long will we get out of him, realistically, given he’s 60-odd? 5 years, tops? It wouldn’t be worth it, IMO.
Carlos Queiroz might be a good shout to return as assistant to Keano, but could he hack being number two to a younger, less experienced man? To be fair, he *has* fulfilled two of his ambitions (i.e. to manage one of Europe’s elite and manage the Portuguese national side) with little success (so far) so maybe he would be happy accepting that he’s a better assistant than he is head honcho.
Given the way the club’s set up at the moment, I think that’d be the best way to go about it, but we’ll have to wait and see. I hope to God Keano gets a chance with a top club with a similar setup to ours (probably on the Continent) to prove he can make it – I’d dread for him to return to us too early and for it to go tits up (both for our sake and his).
Scott, I dont think for one second that Mourinho believes his comments would wind Fergie up, give Mourinho some credit, hes alot smarter than that!
I laughed when I read about his comments this morning, I take every thing he says with a pinch of salt. I personally think Mourinho is fantastic, hes first class entertainment, and he has the utmost respect for Fergie and United.
Hes the only man for the job as far I’m concerned when Fergie calls it a day. As for the jibes that his style of play wouldnt suit us, well this season we have been far from entertaining, the premiership in general is a boring league now compared to the mid and late 90′s, I watch la liga all the time aswel and they have far more entertaining games over there then here, and it pains me to say it!
His style may not be entertaining or the United way but it does get results and results win trophies.
Gary – you are mad. I can only assume that any person who says Mourinho is made for the United job has never seen any of his teams play. Porto, Chelsea and Inter are all the same… and they are all the opposite of United. Apart from the fact Mourinho is a total cunt of a person, he doesn’t know how to play United football. You’ve got to be fucking mad to want him as a manager! So he can give the media what they want like Fergie does, that is NOT grounds to fulfil the biggest football appointment ever!
Mad? Yea, maybe a little…but just out of curiosity Scott, can you name me a better man for the job who you would have confidence in to bring continued success to our club when Fergie leaves?
In two years time, the right appointment will be made. Anyone who has any ability to play attacking football would be better for this club than Jose Mourinho. We have tradition at this club and it would all be lost if he was made manager.
Scott, I as much as anyone want United to play entertaining football.
You didnt answer my question tho Scott, I want a name, not a mystery manager who plays this entertaining and successful football that we crave.
Answer me this, do you think Mourinho would keep United as the most successful team in English football?
Depending on how Maarten Jol gets on with relatively limited resources at Hamburg (currently joint 3rd), I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts his name in the hat after successful spells in Holland and leading an average-decent Spurs side to consecutive 5th place finishes.
Oh, and wasn’t he also interviewed for the assistant’s spot after Carlos left for Madrid? Shows how highly he’s regarded among the United hierarchy, IMO.
There have been a few comments about JM’s less than positve tactics, but IMO we have tried the same the last few seasons when playing away at the rest of the big four. Last season we totally looked more like an Italian team than Roma, when we played them away and if we’d played our usual bomb forward of say 10 years ago Barca would have completely ripped us to shreads in the semi last season. IMO he made his Porto team around two very talented players in Deco and Carvalho, deco especially is technically very gifted and the rest worked hard for each other. Chealsea, the players he had there aren’t exactly as good as that of Barca at the same time and he set them up to play to their strengths. At United he would inherit a quad of players who can play like an Italian team or maul teams in the classic 4 4 2 united style. I have mentioned in other threads that my concern would be he would not adapt and not couldn’t adapt his football philosophy IF he was offered the job. Jol is a reasonable shout, Martin ONeil is doing very well. I want a manager who will not be intimidated by our history and the success that SAF has brought us.
Last season’s “dour”, tactical European performances were a realisation of the need to end years of naivety of bombing on and getting ripped apart by teams who exploit space.
However, I still think it would’ve been a completely different tie had Ronaldo’s pen gone in, in the first leg. Barca were severely underperforming at the time and to have gone into the match low on confidence only to be 0-1 down after just 10 minutes might have been too much. I reckon we could’ve come out of the Camp Nou at least 0-2 up (if not more when you think what Madrid did to them). The game at OT then wouldn’t've been half as nervy.
Agreed but we were chasing shadows for a couple of spells, and we may have not had a hope if they were at full tilt and we had tried our bombing forward tactics of old, they cntrolled the ball for worryingly long spells at OT. I for one prefer our away tactics in CL and away to the big four, is shows a greater maturity and tactical wareness from both the players and SAF, who said you can’t teach and old dog new tricks. To be honest it I wouldn’t have minded anyone in this next round cos I think we will improve immensly over the next 7 – 8 weeks. One last comment on managers, who ever it is will need to be a CL veteran and possibly have won the trophy and for me, at the moment our ex-players are not experienced enough. Sentiment should not come into it.
Mourino is worry sick facing MU in the CL and started to talk nonsence about the past. Get over it Mourino and make sure your players dont get red card when they challenge Ronaldo with their dirty tackles. MU can play without Vidic and Rooney and still will win the match. Its proven during the EPL matches.Only a coward manager Mourino who go on spying mission to
watch MU matches and bragged so much about Inter being the best.