Mourinho? Never heard of him
Posted by Zeno in Chelsea, Jose Mourinho | 9 May 2006
They say that the recognition of your peers is the most satisfying praise a professional can receive. If the Barclays Manager of the Season award were to be voted on by his fellow Premiership managers, do we still think José would have won? It may be a “special club”, but “at Chelsea, you are not recognised”.
I can see his point: it must be infuriating. Imagine driving your coach-built Mercedes Maybach (or whatever hundred thousand pound appendage you favour) up to the security gate at Cobham.
“Good morning to you, Fred the security guard.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but this is private property. You’ll have to leave.”
“But I am José, the Special One.”
“Sorry, sir. Never seen you before in my life.”
See what I mean? Embarrassing. And it certainly suggests a repercussion or two for that lucrative Samsung / Adidas ad campaign. Who wants an iconic disciplinarian figurehead on their posters if no one knows who they are? As Oscar Wilde so memorably said, the only thing in life that’s worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
I am, of course, yanking the Special One’s chain from behind the Maginot Line that is my crumb-encrusted keyboard. After the retention of the title – a remarkable feat whichever way you look at it – we can all afford to look at things in a more benign light. So what that we had two stone-cold and one iffy penalty appeal waved away at Ewood the other night? OK, the poor lambs needed the points to get into the UEFA Cup. Good luck to them. OK, so Celestine Babayaro nearly ended Arjen Robben’s World Cup a month before it started, and Jean-Alain Boumsong offered up yet another penalty to the refereeing gods at the weekend, only to see it pooh-poohed away like a Max Clifford press release in a sane and humane society. Did we care? Well, ok, a little. But if the dubious joys of the Intertoto Cup are sufficient reward, so be it. Enjoy your summer holiday, boys. And if you think back to José’s first season, I recall him saying something about European assistance from his national league. If he played a European game on a Wednesday, he said, a Portuguese FA official would be on the phone. “Do you want to play Sunday? Monday? Next July? We can fix it.” So really, José, it’s just an extension of that. Newcastle wanted a taste of the continent… a sort of footballing amuse-bouche, and we were in a position to provide it. Let’s be gracious.
A quick mention in dispatches for the funniest weblog on the Net, sent to me recently by a colleague. Dear readers, I give you the Arsenal Muse. Here’s a representative sample.
“I felt Spurs were trying to get out of the dilemma. On the one hand they desperately wanted Champions League football. In the past few weeks we have seen how much of a two faced assassin Martin Jol can be. On the one hand, in front of the press he acts as though he is civil and good natured in football but on the other hand he has been shown to lie extensively even when caught out and also yesterday he remarked about foul play (even though nobody had mentioned it) but he did start the fire although he indirectly states he doesn't think there was foul play.”
I love it: it’s like reading a car crash. The link’s on the left, but I’ll be returning to this fellow in the coming weeks: if you can’t face logging onto an Arsenal site, bear with me and I’ll keep you informed.
