Liverpool FC Forum

[The Italian Job 2005]

Hugh McIlvanney: Specious One losing the plot
The voice of sport


With the wearing banality of muzak, the complaints and conspiracy theories of Jose Mourinho thrum in our ears every time the realities of football deviate from what he sees as the irresistible destiny of his talents. Whether his consistently one-eyed view of events is the result of a genuine taint of paranoia or of calculated use of misinterpretation as a weapon, the effects are bound to be equally tiresome. Hypocrisy is a creature that no amount of meretricious dressing-up can make attractive.

As Mourinho repeatedly excuses, tacitly or volubly, egregious offences by his players while unleashing a torrent of condemnation on the (often lesser) transgressions of others, as he twists facts mercilessly to suggest that rare unfavourable scorelines for Chelsea aren’t actually defeats, only injustices, his arguments are laughably self-serving. In his reaction to Barcelona’s Champions League victory at Stamford Bridge last Wednesday night, a win marred by controversy but certainly not undeserved, he demonstrated yet again that he has become the Specious One. And he is in danger of becoming something worse: a graceless bore.



Whereas once his mischief came across as the sophisticated games-playing of a cunning, worldly provocateur, amusing us with observations marinaded in irony and jokes tipped with venom that did no more than sting, steadily his methods of seeking to undermine anybody he perceives as an obstacle to his ambitions have coarsened into unacceptable offensiveness. His efforts to portray himself and his team as righteous purveyors of excellence assailed from all sides by envy, cynicism and devious plots sometimes relate so strangely to his own manipulative ways that they teeter on the edge of farce.

How much brazenness does it take persistently to accuse Liverpool of robbing Chelsea by progressing at their expense into last May’s Champions League final on the strength of a goal that wasn’t a goal? Mourinho had a strong case for questioning whether Luis Garcia’s contact with the ball early on that night at Anfield sent all of it over the line. But where the blinding audacity shows is in the appropriation of the incident as a permanent, festering grievance without the faintest recognition that in the same passage of play Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, ploughed into Milan Baros with a severity that would have warranted a penalty and a sending-off had the referee not, presumably, applied the advantage principle. Anyway, it was impossible to listen to Mourinho’s moaning about the outcome without gagging at the memory of how, at an earlier knockout stage of the tournament, his men had dismissed Barcelona by means of a goal that was not merely illegal but the fruit of premeditated skulduggery (the foul with which Ricardo Carvalho neutralised the opposition goalkeeper could not be seen in any other light).

It says much for the professionalism and personal restraint of Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona manager, that he never chose to dwell publicly on the galling experience he endured in west London in March 2005, or indeed on the ugliness surrounding the first leg of the tie a fortnight before at the Nou Camp, when Mourinho alleged the Dutchman colluded with the match referee, Anders Frisk, who responded to subsequent hounding and threats by heading into retirement. Happenings in Catalonia a year ago were so unsavoury (having said he saw Rijkaard and Frisk together in compromising circumstances when he had seen nothing of the kind, Mourinho was branded an “enemy of football” and eventually fined and given a two-match touchline ban) that their main orchestrator might have been expected to try to dilute the bad blood when the clubs were drawn to collide again in this season’s competition.

Instead, characteristically, Mourinho appeared intent on adding transfusions of bitterness at every opportunity as Wednesday’s game approached. So, when an occasion for dispute emerged in the midst of the action, he was primed to apply his repertoire of resentful special pleading. His principal technique in this instance was to invite the world to acknowledge how unjustly Asier del Horno had been sent off for a foul on Lionel Messi after 37 minutes. I could not join the ranks of vehement objectors to the expulsion. If Del Horno merited sympathy, it was only because of the extreme torment inflicted on him by Messi’s bewildering elusiveness. The ball-control of one man annihilated the self-control of the other. Utterly disregarding the whereabouts of the ball, Del Horno hurled himself at the Argentine winger with such violent recklessness (it was not a tackle but an assault) that bad injury must have been a possibility if the target’s unnatural speed of thought had not enabled him to jump and brace himself for impact.

Those who tell us a red card was outrageous should remember that the offender had already visited sufficient mayhem on the 18-year-old Messi — whose slight figure was the most magnetic, dazzlingly effective presence on the field — to make the escaping of an earlier caution remarkable or, rather, simply wrong. Messi’s theatrical rolling on the ground was superfluous proof that even divinely talented prodigies are not immune to the distasteful excesses of the age. But when Mourinho railed against cheating-by-acting he was merely confirming that effrontery is as natural to him as breathing. The recent Grand Guignol performance of Arjen Robben apparently did not impinge on his thinking.

Nor did his comments accommodate the basic truth that the vast bulk of the quality football produced in midweek, before and after Del Horno’s removal, came from Barcelona. When outnumbered, Chelsea were heroically defiant. Yet even if they had stayed at full strength the odds would have been against overcoming the limitations of their play (their manager’s brilliantly successful record is based on favouring well-oiled pragmatism over expansive creativity, and more may be needed to beat Barca). Making the Nou Camp a gateway to the quarter-finals would be something of a miracle for Jose Mourinho. It is sad to reflect about such a prodigiously gifted individual that losing gracefully might be just as much of a stretch.

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Sums up for me everything that is wrong with this overblown, pompous, short-sighted prat.

[inglis5]

Excellent article. Mourinho has become a joke. Thank god we got Rafa, not that prick!

[115-1073096938]

Good article.

At first i found him hilairious, honest, self confident and exceptional. Now i find him exceptional, arrogant, pig headed, hypocrytical, two faced, a moaner and a bad loser.

[greenred]

The man is a loser.I would love to see how his arrogance and stupidity would come across at a club like Sunderland.

[Lando_Griffin]

Well everyone knows I hate him.

I just can't see why anyone would class him as an exceptional manager. He looks to be heading out of this seasons CL, despite having a limitless transfer fund.
We beat his team of superstars last season, and he got a poxy victory the year before with a team of divers, who (and lets be fair to them) could have won 11 Oscars between them.
They hardly played any world-beaters either, with one of the kindest draws in the competition's history.

They played: Partizan Belgrade, Marseille and Real Madrid in the group stages, losing 3-1 at home to Real.
In the knockout stages, they faced: Man U, Lyon, Deportivo La Coruna and Monaco.

Without being funny, they only actually played one strong team in the knockout stages (Man U), and were pretty much assured of second place in their group.

Compare their run with ours:

Monaco, Deportivo La Coruna, Olympiacos (Group)

Beyer Leverkusen, Juventus, Sh*tski and AC Milan.

We played 3 of the 4 best teams in the entire competition and won. (Barca were the 4th).

Moris had a damn good team at his disposal aswell, despite what anyone says. The likes of Deco, Carvalho, Ferrera, etc, were all there, and now have all left for better teams. (Deco chose the better option!). They also had a very good striker in McCarthy.


What I'm saying is - look at the smaller details, and tell me which victory was the truely exceptional feat of managerial skill, and which was an exceptionally kind set of fixtures.

Here's a couple of clues:

The "exceptional" feat of managerial skill included the transformation of Igor Biscan from painful joke to a dominator of some of Europe's finest midfields.

Here's the second clue:

IT'S NOT THAT W*NKER MORIS

[babu]

Hey Lando,
I think you might be off the mark here. And no I am not defending Jose, the man, he is quite clearly a first class bellend.

But you can't really fault his pedigree as a manager, one who get results. You are comparing our run to the CL final and theirs, I don't see the point. I think we can all agree that we beat some of the finest teams in europe to lift big ears again. This does not make Jose Morinho any less of a manager.

i believe his accomplishments as a manager speak for themselves. If you believe anyone could have done what he's done at chelsea, IMO your wrong. Sure his job is easier when he has a blank cheque book, but look at the results.... To those who say Chelsea will never win the Champions League, I don't how you can justify this, they have a strong, consistent team.

He is world class, IMO there is no doubt.

But is he a better manager than Rafa? Of course I don't think so. But based soley on accomplishments it would be hard to argue either way. Rafa is a better human no doubt.

Would i want Morinho at Anfield, no friggin way.

Just on a side note.. I have a new lady, and I'm actually quite keen on her, but last night i was watching the tele, and the moaner's face came on. She said, 'ooh whos that? he's cute'. I'm pretty sure this is grounds for instance dumping.

[Lando_Griffin]

Hey Lando,
I think you might be off the mark here. And no I am not defending Jose, the man, he is quite clearly a first class bellend.

But you can't really fault his pedigree as a manager, one who get results. You are comparing our run to the CL final and theirs, I don't see the point. I think we can all agree that we beat some of the finest teams in europe to lift big ears again. This does not make Jose Morinho any less of a manager.

i believe his accomplishments as a manager speak for themselves. If you believe anyone could have done what he's done at chelsea, IMO your wrong. Sure his job is easier when he has a blank cheque book, but look at the results.... To those who say Chelsea will never win the Champions League, I don't how you can justify this, they have a strong, consistent team.

He is world class, IMO there is no doubt.

But is he a better manager than Rafa? Of course I don't think so. But based soley on accomplishments it would be hard to argue either way. Rafa is a better human no doubt.

Would i want Morinho at Anfield, no friggin way.

Just on a side note.. I have a new lady, and I'm actually quite keen on her, but last night i was watching the tele, and the moaner's face came on. She said, 'ooh whos that? he's cute'. I'm pretty sure this is grounds for instance dumping.

Well it's all opinions mate. I just think he's overrated, and the lack of tactics at Sh*tski just re-enforces that for me.

But to more pressing matters:

Where will you dump the girlfriend? A dustbin? Down the sewers? Off a cliff?

Either way - while you're at it, you couldn't do the world a favour and take that walking wank-bag Moris and dump that piece of sh*t aswell could you!?!

[anfieldadorer]

he's genuinely a brilliant manager, no doubt
but as "he came from a small vilage and given a kingdom and a promising future with unlimited prospect of money as well as with the sudden massive pressure and all that", this must have taken him off the ground and driven him insane

[darwisigila]

[quote]
Posted: Feb. 27 2006,05:12
Lando_Griffin
LFC Elite Member

Well it's all opinions mate. I just think he's overrated, and the lack of tactics at Sh*tski just re-enforces that for me.

with squad he got, they should play beautiful football or attacking football like or barca and not stop opponent from scoring goal. Thats because moanrinho too afraid to lose....bad loser