AN EYE FOR AN EYE:
HOW IDIOTIC JOSE MOURINHO KILLED
OFF HIS BIGGEST DREAM…TO MANAGE MAN UNITED
An exclusive report by Frank Worrall
JOSE MOURINHO has, naturally, yet again been monopolising the sporting headlines across Europe. Unfortunately, yet again, they have been for all the wrong reasons – and may prove fatal for his career. Following on from the now inevitable run-ins with referees, fellow managers, players and authority, the Portuguese recently dropped a terrible clanger when he decided to have a go at gouging the eye of Barcelona assisant coach Tito Vilanova.
The angry gesture followed the defeat of Mourinho’s Real Madrid side to La Liga champions Barcelona during the Spanish Super Cup. Mourinho was clearly feeling the stress of not being able to get the better of Pep Guardiola’s team of geniuses and lost his rag (and his head).
It was a cowardly move; one hardly befitting the coach of one of the world’s three super clubs (the others being Barca and Manchester United). It was a disgusting move, it was a move that did Mourinho only harm and blackened the name of Real Madrid and all that famous club stands for. It was a move that shamed both manager and football club. And what an atrocious example to set for children who follow the so-called beautiful game throughout the world.
It also emphasised the belief that Mourinho, so often the master manager in England and Italy, was now struggling for the first time in his star-spangled career. The man for whom success seemed a given at Chelsea and Inter Milan was now becoming frustrated at his obvious inability to translate the same golden touch in Spain.
Mourinho, the man who had always been in the right place at the right time, from his wonderful beginnings at Porto to Stamford Bridge to the San Siro, had dropped an almighty clanger by heading to Spain at the wrong moment. He hadn’t thought it through enough: he had assumed, as you would if you had a monster ego like Mourinho, that he would simply clean up in Spain like he had done elsewhere.
In that sense, he was a fool betrayed by his own foolish ego.
He hadn’t grasped the basic fact that however much money he spent at Madrid, or how many different ways he tried to manipulate refs, players, managers or the footballing authorities, he would not be able to halt the juggernaut known as FC Barcelona. The juggernaut that was racing towards him at 100mph and would run him over, leaving him desolate, depressed, disillusioned and, ultimately, beaten.
The fact is this: Barcelona are simply too good for Real Madrid, indeed they are simply too good for any club side at the moment. So Mourinho is banging his head against a brick wall, and now he knows it, and that is why he is resorting to tactics that threaten to derail his career for good.
The simple fact of the matter now is this: the night Jose tried to gouge the eye of Vilanova, he not only lost respect in Spain, but he also crushed his own ultimate dream. Of following Sir Alex Ferguson as manager of Manchester United. Before the incident, there was probably still an 80 per cent chance that Jose would have eventually walked into the Old Trafford manager’s office. But after it? No chance, not even one per cent.
There is no way that the world-famous football club would even entertain the idea of employing a man who tried to gouge out another man’s eye: it is simply too disreputable. Can you imagine Sir Bobby Charlton looking him in the eye (if you will excuse the turn of phrase) and saying ‘You’re very welcome here Jose’? Of course not, and Sir Bobby’s view counts for a hell of a lot at the Theatre of Dreams.
Has Mourinho realised the self-harm his gouging action has caused? I am sure he has, and it is the thought of having now wrecked his hopes of the United job that has added to his misery and disenchantment. Not only has he failed to dislodge Barca from their throne, but he has killed off his own No 1 ambition of ascending the throne at United.
What a fall from grace for one of the most colourful – and undoubtedly talented – managers and characters in the game. Mourinho’s options would now seem severely limited after Madrid. It is difficult to see another top English team wanting him – or him wanting them. They will all be frightened of his smeared reputation and the potential damage he could cause to their club’s reputation. Would any club be willing to gamble with him? Maybe he will return back to Inter Milan, or opt for international management with Portugal.
But how I bet he now wishes he could turn back the clock and erase the act that has so emphatically brought down the curtain on his dream. It is a sad ending, but it is also hard to feel sad for Jose Mourinho. He has had the good times and now he is set for the footballing equivalent of skid row: all because he was the idiotic architect of his own downfall. An eye for an eye, indeed…
