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diegomessi
Anxiously waiting for the next match
Early last year, I took part in a survey to pick the 10 greatest European Cup-winning managers.
These are the names the poll came up with: Rinus Michels, Bob Paisley, Matt Busby, Ernst Happel, Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough, Bela Guttman, Arrigo Sacchi, Jock Stein and Marcello Lippi.
Jose Mourinho, along with Fabio Capello, just missed the cut. Had the poll been done months later, after his second Champions League win, Mourinho would have cruised into that top 10.
Had he gone on this year to lift his third European Cup with three different clubs, he could have laid claim to being near the top of it.
But what we witnessed in the Bernabeu on Wednesday proved that, no matter how many trophies Mourinho wins, he will never deserve to sit in such exalted company as those true managerial greats.
Because, ultimately, he doesn’t really care about football. Not the players, not the fans and not the club.
He cares solely about one thing: How Jose Mourinho is perceived. How he can sneer and wink at the fools who doubt him.
And he’s turning into a sad, demented bore.
He’s the new Michael Barrymore. An eccentric, anti-establishment figure who once appeared a breath of fresh air.
When he went into exile, and blander men replaced him, we looked back on his act with fondness. But when he was shoved before us again, needing to go to greater lengths to shock us into loving him, we just squirmed and wondered what we ever found appealing.
It’s why the vast majority of neutrals (despite having many issues with Barcelona) were overjoyed to see this mean-spirited figure humiliated on Wednesday.
That long, pre- meditated after-match outburst, when he blamed everyone from Uefa to Unicef for conspiring to get Barca to Wembley was his way of stealing the limelight from a truly great football man, Lionel Messi, who had just scored one of the finest-ever Champions League goals.
More than that, it was a way of diverting attention away from the kind of anti-football Jorge Valdano once described as “s*** on a stick” that he chose to serve up when he had home advantage, with the most lavishly-assembled squad in the world at his disposal.
A team that had Benzema, Higuain and Kaka on the bench, and the most expensive footballer ever, Cristiano Ronaldo pleading with his manager to give him the means to attack.
A manager who looked away, letting him know he was an irrelevance in the greater scheme of things - the scheme of elevating Jose.
Remember him holding five fingers up to the cameras after winning the FA Cup with Chelsea, reminding us how many trophies he had won in London, racing down the line at Old Trafford, running to the centre of the Nou Camp last year and dragging the cameras away from the Inter Milan players who had performed so brilliantly? Nauseating.
The self-styled Special One does not deserve to sit alongside the Happels, Paisleys and Busbys because he does not love football and football people. Just himself.
He doesn’t create great clubs, just one trophy-winning team, before moving on to another rich club he believes can fuel his personal ambition.
He now tells us his next move will be to England and believes he is flattering us with such a generous pronouncement.
But is a man whose youthful charm has turned to bitter megalomania, a self-obsessed control freak who plays with such destructive cynicism, really worthy of taking our biggest and best clubs forward?
In a word, no.
Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opi...Special-bore-article729633.html#ixzz1L6NXPbFE
brian reade
These are the names the poll came up with: Rinus Michels, Bob Paisley, Matt Busby, Ernst Happel, Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough, Bela Guttman, Arrigo Sacchi, Jock Stein and Marcello Lippi.
Jose Mourinho, along with Fabio Capello, just missed the cut. Had the poll been done months later, after his second Champions League win, Mourinho would have cruised into that top 10.
Had he gone on this year to lift his third European Cup with three different clubs, he could have laid claim to being near the top of it.
But what we witnessed in the Bernabeu on Wednesday proved that, no matter how many trophies Mourinho wins, he will never deserve to sit in such exalted company as those true managerial greats.
Because, ultimately, he doesn’t really care about football. Not the players, not the fans and not the club.
He cares solely about one thing: How Jose Mourinho is perceived. How he can sneer and wink at the fools who doubt him.
And he’s turning into a sad, demented bore.
He’s the new Michael Barrymore. An eccentric, anti-establishment figure who once appeared a breath of fresh air.
When he went into exile, and blander men replaced him, we looked back on his act with fondness. But when he was shoved before us again, needing to go to greater lengths to shock us into loving him, we just squirmed and wondered what we ever found appealing.
It’s why the vast majority of neutrals (despite having many issues with Barcelona) were overjoyed to see this mean-spirited figure humiliated on Wednesday.
That long, pre- meditated after-match outburst, when he blamed everyone from Uefa to Unicef for conspiring to get Barca to Wembley was his way of stealing the limelight from a truly great football man, Lionel Messi, who had just scored one of the finest-ever Champions League goals.
More than that, it was a way of diverting attention away from the kind of anti-football Jorge Valdano once described as “s*** on a stick” that he chose to serve up when he had home advantage, with the most lavishly-assembled squad in the world at his disposal.
A team that had Benzema, Higuain and Kaka on the bench, and the most expensive footballer ever, Cristiano Ronaldo pleading with his manager to give him the means to attack.
A manager who looked away, letting him know he was an irrelevance in the greater scheme of things - the scheme of elevating Jose.
Remember him holding five fingers up to the cameras after winning the FA Cup with Chelsea, reminding us how many trophies he had won in London, racing down the line at Old Trafford, running to the centre of the Nou Camp last year and dragging the cameras away from the Inter Milan players who had performed so brilliantly? Nauseating.
The self-styled Special One does not deserve to sit alongside the Happels, Paisleys and Busbys because he does not love football and football people. Just himself.
He doesn’t create great clubs, just one trophy-winning team, before moving on to another rich club he believes can fuel his personal ambition.
He now tells us his next move will be to England and believes he is flattering us with such a generous pronouncement.
But is a man whose youthful charm has turned to bitter megalomania, a self-obsessed control freak who plays with such destructive cynicism, really worthy of taking our biggest and best clubs forward?
In a word, no.
Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opi...Special-bore-article729633.html#ixzz1L6NXPbFE
brian reade
F
Flavia
Guest
Great read, benj. Thanks for the link. The guy speaks the truth.
10Rivaldo
Hoy, mañana y siempre traductor
Blaugrana dude
New member
Really good read. Thanks for posting :beer2:
Myrmecophile
Mr. Japes
Legacy of Special One tainted by Real and imaginary slights
By Dion Fanning
Jose Mourinho is not the enemy of football, he is the enemy of himself. If he was as calculating as most people assume then he would have said nothing after last Wednesday's game.
If his comments were essential to his success as a coach, he would have stayed quiet but they are not. Mourinho's words and actions surrounding matches are part of his genius, but it is the part he can't control. If he could, he wouldn't be a genius. Last week, they were once again the roots of his self-destruction.
Pepe had been the victim of a debatable sending-off and Real Madrid had been made to suffer thanks to the genius of Messi and the diving of Barcelona's players. When he spoke to the press afterwards, Mourinho ceded the high ground and may have permanently damaged his reputation.
If he somehow manages to triumph in the Nou Camp or survive in the Real Madrid job, the perception will change and his reputation as a genius will be restored. But Mourinho is, right now, as vulnerable as he has ever been. He is, it is generally agreed, unsuitable for Manchester United after Wednesday night and many in Madrid think he is also unsuitable for Real Madrid.
Right now, he is only suitable for the brash, like Manchester City or those who need to win by any means necessary. Soon he may end up in Qatar, selling his project with the same self-belief as he sells himself, only the project will have less substance.
Mourinho's genius is that he sold himself on his achievements long before he had achieved anything. That was his starting point. Now he is a man who has achieved as much as anyone working in football and the claims he makes are consequently more grandiose and paranoid too.
He had, he said, played no part in Madrid's defeat last week. The reasons for the defeat were the referee, UEFA, Barcelona, Unicef, the global conspiracy and the military industrial complex. Just like Oliver Stone's movies are all ultimately about why he had to go to Vietnam, Mourinho may be reaching a point where everything he says is ultimately about why Barcelona only viewed him as an interpreter. Mourinho produced his own Zapruder film on Thursday when Madrid put out a video of Pepe's tackle on Dani Alves which they said proved that Pepe had not touched Alves.
All that was missing was Mourinho as Jim Garrison, holding a pointer and asking us to follow the movement of Pepe and Alves's leg: "back and to the left, back and to the left." The video might have proved that Alves dived but it didn't prove that Pepe was the victim of an injustice.
Barcelona spent most of the night diving. They are masters at this too but perhaps if you spend all your time with the ball, facing opponents who spend all their time trying to kick you, you decide that you have to try and get what you can out of referees.
Mourinho suggested that his team had set out to play with honour. They had set out to play without the ball but because they didn't dive, he felt they had honour.
Guus Hiddink stated in a column last week that he felt Mourinho's remarks concealed the manner in which his side plays football. This would be like murdering the shopkeeper to conceal the shoplifting of a packet of wine gums. Mourinho traduced his own reputation on Wednesday night but the world has known how his sides like to play football for a long time.
Of course, there was Real Madrid's reputation to consider. Men like Di Stefano have criticised him and what he is doing to the reputation of Real Madrid. Mourinho refused to criticise a man like Di Stefano because he has shaped Madrid's history while Mourinho has done nothing. Mourinho is gambling that it is his own reputation that will prevent Madrid from firing him as they have with others who have displeased them like Capello.
Mourinho appeared to put the players on their squad list ahead of their place in history. He decided that with Lassana Diarra and Sergio Ramos in the side, the historical demand to play football had to be sacrificed. The game ended with the referee being protected by policemen's shields as he left the field. It was a scene reminiscent of an inter-county GAA match (although they might not have provided the shields) and not what anyone wanted at the end of a high-profile sporting event.
Mourinho summoned other events from history at the conclusion to justify his and his side's actions.
Pep Guardiola had to be embarrassed by the title his side won. Usually men who accuse teams of winning by cheating don't have long left in their current position but Mourinho knows no other way out of his mess.
A day later he was saying the same thing. "I did not make an accusation, I asked a question: 'Why?' That was my question and, as I said, I might die without getting an answer. These events mean that I have even more desire to continue at Real Madrid, because of what it means. Our shirt is white -- and that has meaning."
So he claims the high ground which is no place for a man like Mourinho.
If he did any good last week, it was to demonstrate that "mind games" are a cliché. They are not an act of cunning but an explosion of despair or relief. In Mourinho's case, they are the manifestation of his self-destructive genius. Others used the bottle or the betting-slip. Mourinho's drug of choice is the microphone.
By Dion Fanning
Jose Mourinho is not the enemy of football, he is the enemy of himself. If he was as calculating as most people assume then he would have said nothing after last Wednesday's game.
If his comments were essential to his success as a coach, he would have stayed quiet but they are not. Mourinho's words and actions surrounding matches are part of his genius, but it is the part he can't control. If he could, he wouldn't be a genius. Last week, they were once again the roots of his self-destruction.
Pepe had been the victim of a debatable sending-off and Real Madrid had been made to suffer thanks to the genius of Messi and the diving of Barcelona's players. When he spoke to the press afterwards, Mourinho ceded the high ground and may have permanently damaged his reputation.
If he somehow manages to triumph in the Nou Camp or survive in the Real Madrid job, the perception will change and his reputation as a genius will be restored. But Mourinho is, right now, as vulnerable as he has ever been. He is, it is generally agreed, unsuitable for Manchester United after Wednesday night and many in Madrid think he is also unsuitable for Real Madrid.
Right now, he is only suitable for the brash, like Manchester City or those who need to win by any means necessary. Soon he may end up in Qatar, selling his project with the same self-belief as he sells himself, only the project will have less substance.
Mourinho's genius is that he sold himself on his achievements long before he had achieved anything. That was his starting point. Now he is a man who has achieved as much as anyone working in football and the claims he makes are consequently more grandiose and paranoid too.
He had, he said, played no part in Madrid's defeat last week. The reasons for the defeat were the referee, UEFA, Barcelona, Unicef, the global conspiracy and the military industrial complex. Just like Oliver Stone's movies are all ultimately about why he had to go to Vietnam, Mourinho may be reaching a point where everything he says is ultimately about why Barcelona only viewed him as an interpreter. Mourinho produced his own Zapruder film on Thursday when Madrid put out a video of Pepe's tackle on Dani Alves which they said proved that Pepe had not touched Alves.
All that was missing was Mourinho as Jim Garrison, holding a pointer and asking us to follow the movement of Pepe and Alves's leg: "back and to the left, back and to the left." The video might have proved that Alves dived but it didn't prove that Pepe was the victim of an injustice.
Barcelona spent most of the night diving. They are masters at this too but perhaps if you spend all your time with the ball, facing opponents who spend all their time trying to kick you, you decide that you have to try and get what you can out of referees.
Mourinho suggested that his team had set out to play with honour. They had set out to play without the ball but because they didn't dive, he felt they had honour.
Guus Hiddink stated in a column last week that he felt Mourinho's remarks concealed the manner in which his side plays football. This would be like murdering the shopkeeper to conceal the shoplifting of a packet of wine gums. Mourinho traduced his own reputation on Wednesday night but the world has known how his sides like to play football for a long time.
Of course, there was Real Madrid's reputation to consider. Men like Di Stefano have criticised him and what he is doing to the reputation of Real Madrid. Mourinho refused to criticise a man like Di Stefano because he has shaped Madrid's history while Mourinho has done nothing. Mourinho is gambling that it is his own reputation that will prevent Madrid from firing him as they have with others who have displeased them like Capello.
Mourinho appeared to put the players on their squad list ahead of their place in history. He decided that with Lassana Diarra and Sergio Ramos in the side, the historical demand to play football had to be sacrificed. The game ended with the referee being protected by policemen's shields as he left the field. It was a scene reminiscent of an inter-county GAA match (although they might not have provided the shields) and not what anyone wanted at the end of a high-profile sporting event.
Mourinho summoned other events from history at the conclusion to justify his and his side's actions.
Pep Guardiola had to be embarrassed by the title his side won. Usually men who accuse teams of winning by cheating don't have long left in their current position but Mourinho knows no other way out of his mess.
A day later he was saying the same thing. "I did not make an accusation, I asked a question: 'Why?' That was my question and, as I said, I might die without getting an answer. These events mean that I have even more desire to continue at Real Madrid, because of what it means. Our shirt is white -- and that has meaning."
So he claims the high ground which is no place for a man like Mourinho.
If he did any good last week, it was to demonstrate that "mind games" are a cliché. They are not an act of cunning but an explosion of despair or relief. In Mourinho's case, they are the manifestation of his self-destructive genius. Others used the bottle or the betting-slip. Mourinho's drug of choice is the microphone.
F
Flavia
Guest
This guy believed the fake video... I thought the word had spread about this low merdi reached by editing a video to try to prove a (non existent) point.
F
Flavia
Guest
Guus Hiddink and Kenny Dalglish about cuntinho:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ow-Lionel-Messi--Kenny-Dalglish.html?ITO=1490
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...se-Mourinho-rant-Barca.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ow-Lionel-Messi--Kenny-Dalglish.html?ITO=1490
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...se-Mourinho-rant-Barca.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Blaugrana dude
New member
Good to see Hiddink, who was directly involved in the 2nd leg at Chelsea, come out and rubbish Mourinho's idea of a conspiracy.
Catalonian Devil
Shukran Pep
Hiddink 
Absolutely love how everybody has turned against Jose, there's still hope in todays footballing world...
Absolutely love how everybody has turned against Jose, there's still hope in todays footballing world...
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