Liverpool FC Forum

by **bigmick** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:23 am

No Bav the fact that he spent an awful lot of money at Chelsea has never been in dispute. Anyway...

Champions League: Jose Mourinho’s Inter mission
Inter Milan v Manchester United: Inter’s manager explains why his date with old rival Sir Alex Ferguson is so specialIan Hawkey
Jose Mourinho had it all figured out. Even as far as the time his thoughts would take to zip through the synapses of his special brain. “At six o’clock, after the end of the match against Bologna, I started thinking about the game against Manchester United,” Mourinho calculated. “In a few seconds I arrived where I want my mind to take me.”

Which was where? “Which is, ‘We can beat them’.” That was last night. This morning, Mourinho begins his work on the minds of the footballers of Internazionale, gathering them together at Appiano Gentile, their practice centre close to Como, a serene place with a new-age pavilion, all hieroglyphs and white pillars, as its decorative centrepiece.

“This will be the first time I’m going to speak to the players about the United game,” Mourinho continued, outlining his methods, step by step.

What will he say? “I think I will start by saying, ‘We can do it’.” Mourinho is helped by the knowledge that he has done it before. Archived in his memory are the dozen sets of mind games he has played ahead of, and during, contests with United, starting with the upstart confrontations of the young manager of Porto who so riled the manager of Manchester United that Sir Alex Ferguson would not shake his hand, into the tussles for the leadership of the Premiership and the League and FA Cup ties where the two managers’ mutual respect grew during three years of jousting as the matador and bull of English football.

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Mourinho, ever precise, remembers each and every one of those encounters. “I have played 12 times in the last few years against Manchester United, so I know their qualities, I know their players.”

He has always been good at this sort of preamble, giving the impression everything on the field, the training ground, the press conferences has been plotted, planned and rigorously puppeteered. Over the next few days he will carry on the act of knowing soothsayer before Tuesday’s collision between the champions of Italy and England.

Mourinho is bold enough to suggest strongly that he knows the mood of Ferguson approaching the fixture between United and Inter in Milan. “I think Sir Alex must be happy,” said Mourinho about the domestic advantage United hold over the rest of the Premier League and the condition in which he sees Chelsea, a club appointing a part-time care-taker manager in a post Mourinho used to occupy.

“Sir Alex thinks it will be easier for him because over the last few years, his only real opponent was Chelsea,” explained Mourinho. “Chelsea won in 2004-05 and 05-06, finished second in 06-07, 07-08. So for the last five years, they have been a real opponent. So if he thinks Chelsea are no longer the same, Sir Alex must be happy.”

It was left unsaid that if indeed United’s “only real opponent was Chelsea” in the three years after 2004, then Mourinho had been Ferguson’s “only real opponent”. It was not left entirely unsaid that, by implication, a team such as Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool were not “a real opponent”.

Mourinho took the opportunity to recall the occasion when Benitez rested most of his first-choice XI for a Premier League fixture against Fulham three days before Liverpool played Chelsea in a Champions League semi-final, and concluded that “big clubs have to concentrate on more than one trophy”.

That was an aside, a tangential dart at an old enmity - with Liverpool - from a Mourinho clearly excited and intensely focused on renewing his acquaintance with English football, with United and with their manager.

If Mourinho thought Ferguson was happy with Chelsea’s difficulties, then by the same token he must surely be doubly happy in his job, in charge of an Internazionale team who began the weekend with a nine-point lead over their closest pursuers in Serie A?

Not entirely. “I would be happy if Juventus and Milan were going in the same direction as Chelsea. As it is, I’m not so happy because I think Juventus and Milan are moving in the right direction.”

Not that Inter were failing to progress, he added modestly. “I’m happy with the development of the team over the past couple of months. If I compare my team now with the team I had in the group phase, this team is better, it’s more conscious of what it has to do, it’s more comfortable on the pitch, know better what they have to do. Our game-model is much more stable and we want so much to play against Manchester United.”

He has envisaged the opening moments. Whatever his words about thinking only of Bologna, Mourinho took his players, unusually, to practise at the stadium at San Siro, rather than at Appiano Gentile, seven days before the United match. He has imagined vividly the feel on the night. “Cool,” he reckons. “A game to enjoy. Eighty-five thousand in the stadium, I believe, and a great atmosphere. Inter fans are really connecting with the team at the moment, as they did in the Milan derby last Sunday.

“United fans, even if they come with a few thousand, they are enough to make a real noise and enjoy, as they always do. After the Milan derby [Inter won 2-1 last weekend], we were very proud of the game we gave to the world because everybody was watching. With Manchester United, the world will be watching us. We must give them a real game. It’s a big game for the world to enjoy.”

And the next day? Mourinho had that figured out, too: the headlines, the conclusions.

“I can imagine all the world’s press are waiting for the first team to get knocked out. If an English team gets knocked out of the competition, they will smash them. If an Italian team gets knocked out of the Champions League, they will smash them. If Barcelona or Real Madrid go out, the Spanish press will smash them. The reality is we all have to be cool and understand how big is the competition we have to play.”

So, did Mr Cool know the team he would line up? Followers of Inter can guess at eight or nine of the names in his starting XI. First names on the team sheet: the galloping Maicon at right-back and the impressively mature Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front. Mourinho hinted that the steady nurturing back to fitness of the warrior Patrick Vieira, who is often injured, had been timed specifically for Tuesday.

He also rolled out a red carpet for the unlikely figure of Adriano, the Brazilian striker who earlier this season might as well have had the word “wayward” tattooed on his big forearms. For Mourinho, Adriano has become a Lazarus.

“I only see Adriano here at Appiano Gentile, and on the field at San Siro. I see him working very well at both those places. He is never late for training any more. If he carries on like this until the end of the season, I see him becoming a real example for others.

“The change in his attitude is a real comeback. He was a player who had problems and, now, he’s perfect. Others can learn from how he has changed.”

How could he be sure Adriano had reformed? “I’m not his father. I can control his professional life, not his private life.” He said it neither with regret nor resignation. Even Mr Cool cannot control everything.

by **bigmick** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:35 am

And more, Mourinho cranking it up a bit...

Jose Mourinho: Why Wayne Rooney should be banned
Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho insists that Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney should not be lining up to face his side when the Champions League resumes on Tuesday.

By Jim Bruce-Ball
Last Updated: 9:42PM GMT 21 Feb 2009

Flashpoint: Jose Mourinho has started the mind games ahead of Manchester United Champions League tie with Inter Milan, questioning whether Wayne Rooney should be banned Photo: AP
United travel to Milan for what promises to be the tie of the first knockout round and Rooney is raring to go having recovered from a hamstring injury. He started for Manchester United last night and scored as they moved eight points clear at the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win against Blackburn.

But Mourinho, writing for Telegraph Sport on Sunday, says that the striker should not be on the pitch on Tuesday because of a foul he committed against Aalborg in United's last group game.

Rooney made two poor challenges during United's 2-2 draw at Old Trafford that night but both went unpunished by French referee Laurent Duhamel.

However Mourinho, whose side went 12 points clear at the top of Serie A on Saturday, believes Uefa should have punished Rooney retrospectively for the fouls with a two-game suspension.

"Back in 2005 Uefa used TV evidence to suspend Michael Essien for a challenge that he made in the Champions League against Liverpool," he writes. "Against Aalborg, Rooney made a challenge that deserved punishment. But nothing happens. What is the difference between Michael Essien from Chelsea and Wayne Rooney from Manchester United? I don't think there is a difference."

United defender Nemanja Vidic is suspended for Tuesday's first leg at the San Siro for a foul he committed in the World Club Championship final but Mourinho is adamant that the Serbian centre-back should also have been banned for the return leg at Old Trafford on March 11.

"It is simple," he writes. "His elbowing in front of such a large audience deserved a two-game suspension. So he should not be playing in either leg. The rules are written."

Mourinho denies he is making these comments as part of any "mind games" with his counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson. "I think this game will only be played on the pitch," he says. "There will be no special words. When you are friendly with the opposing manager, like I am with Sir Alex Ferguson, it is more difficult to play those games

by **account deleted by request** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:54 pm

JOSE: I WANT JOB IN ENGLAND
Mourinho wants Premier League return
Saturday February 21,2009
By John Richardson
Jose Mourinho has told close friends that he wants to quit Italy and return to the Premier League in the summer.

Mourinho, whose Inter Milan side take on Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday, has privately confessed that he is not a big fan of Italian football.

He has often been at war with the Italian media, despite Inter Milan set to finish as Serie A champions for the fourth season running.
Mourinho says he misses life in England following his abrupt exit from Chelsea after a fall-out with Stamford Bridge owner Roman Abramovich in September 2007.

This revelation is bound to encourage long-standing interest from both Manchester City and Newcastle United.

City’s wealthy backer, Sheikh Mansour, has supported current boss Mark Hughes in the transfer market. But he would quickly switch his allegiance to ‘The Special One’ given any encouragement, while Newcastle owner Mike Ashley sounded out Mourinho before appointing Kevin Keegan 13 months ago.

The job that Mourinho really wants back in England is to become Sir Alex Ferguson’s eventual successor.

The onerous task of stepping into the Scot’s shoes at Old Trafford appeals to Mourinho’s great sense of adventure.

But the ambitious Portuguese boss faces a wait, with Ferguson showing no signs of quitting despite 22 years at the helm.

Some influential people within Old Trafford also see Mourinho as too maverick for their tastes.

Mourinho, though, is loving being back in the English media spotlight as he prepares to pit his wits against Manchester United.

It’s something he has badly missed and, according to close associates, is something he intends to put right having already sown the seeds that he would like to return to Chelsea one day.

by **account deleted by request** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:24 pm

Mourinho tells Liverpool boss Benitez to stop Man Utd whining
22.02.09
Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has told Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez to stop whining.

Mourinho dismissed the claims of Benitez that fixture schedules and the intimidation of referees were key reasons for Manchester United's dominance.

"There is no bias," said Mourinho. "Chelsea were champions because we were the best team and Manchester United are champions because they are the best team. If Liverpool want to win, they have to be better.

"The best team wins."

And in explaining why he did not rest key players at Bologna yesterday, Mourinho delivered another thinly-veiled attack on Benitez and Liverpool.

"We do not rest players as we have to win the title. The big clubs are the ones fighting for the title and the Champions League at the same time.

"Before we played Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final in 2007, Liverpool rested ten players against Fulham. Liverpool lost and that result helped Fulham against another club in the fight against relegation.

"We're playing to win the title, so there's no rotation."

-----------------------------------------------------

Now we know why you like him Mick

by **NANNY RED** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:26 pm

Mourinho tells Liverpool boss Benitez to stop Man Utd whining

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has told Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez to stop whining.

Mourinho dismissed the claims of Benitez that fixture schedules and the intimidation of referees were key reasons for Manchester United's dominance.

"There is no bias," said Mourinho. "Chelsea were champions because we were the best team and Manchester United are champions because they are the best team. If Liverpool want to win, they have to be better.

"The best team wins."

And in explaining why he did not rest key players at Bologna yesterday, Mourinho delivered another thinly-veiled attack on Benitez and Liverpool.

"We do not rest players as we have to win the title. The big clubs are the ones fighting for the title and the Champions League at the same time.

"Before we played Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final in 2007, Liverpool rested ten players against Fulham. Liverpool lost and that result helped Fulham against another club in the fight against relegation.

"We're playing to win the title, so there's no rotation."

Shut your :censored:

mouth you, What do you think were doing now Erm still in with a shout an are we out the European cup , no were not, I hate him i really do

by **maypaxvobiscum** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:40 pm

i agree with Jose. our manager has been whining either bout manure or contracts like a little wuss. he needs to get a grip TBH.

by **SupitsJonF** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:03 pm

I think if we give his ego enough strokes in contract negotiation he can be our next manager.

Please great one, show us how its done :bowdown

.

A man like him would actually consider it.

by **bigmick** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:41 pm

In all seriousness, if we ever are looking for a new manager and he just happens to be available at the same time, we should move heaven and earth to get him. Had he have been our manager this season, in this league, with exactly the same players we have in our squad, I believe we would have won the title.

by **THEBARON** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:43 pm

If Rafa was to go then he is probably the outstanding candidate

by **bigmick** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:55 pm

s@int wrote:"We're playing to win the title, so there's no rotation."

-----------------------------------------------------

Now we know why you like him Mick

This "stuck in the 70's" philosophy certainly resonates with me S@int yes. Maybe it's an age thing. There's that, and the fact he normally wins the league in whichever country he's working in. I think those are the two main factors really.

by **SupitsJonF** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:44 pm

[quote="bigmick"][/quote]
If he was coaching Aston Villa, would they of won the premiership this season?

by **bigmick** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:02 pm

SupitsJonF wrote:
bigmick wrote:

If he was coaching Aston Villa, would they of won the premiership this season?

No. I think Martin O Neill has done an excellent job getting them to where they are. If they finish in the top four, it's a huge achievement.

by **The_Rock** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:00 am

bigmick wrote:In all seriousness, if we ever are looking for a new manager and he just happens to be available at the same time, we should move heaven and earth to get him. Had he have been our manager this season, in this league, with exactly the same players we have in our squad, I believe we would have won the title.

Finally you have said it......finally :P

All i can say is that i agree......

Is it possible to have a trade with inter ?

by **Toffeehater** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:03 am

I think we should get MON , good manager who knows the game and would certainly bring some of his star players along like ashley young and abgholhor as well as barry

by **SupitsJonF** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:51 am

Toffeehater wrote:I think we should get MON , good manager who knows the game and would certainly bring some of his star players along like ashley young and abgholhor as well as barry

Will Agbon like to sit on the bench?

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