Maureen: The Hypocritical One

Shush Jose

8^th May 2007, back in the days when Real Madrid couldn’t get out of the last sixteen of the European Cup against anyone, even Monaco!  Jorge Valdano the General Manager of Real described a European Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Chelsea, and English football in general, as “shit on a stick”. Jorge has been strangely quiet today. Last night the match between Real and Barcelona wasn’t shit on a stick, it was worse. Whilst Jose Mourinho is in the Real dugout the phrase “el Classico” should cease to exist. There is nothing classic about his side or this fixture at the moment. Dignity is well and truly left on the team bus, and that goes for both sides.

There’s no way you can exonerate Barcelona from criticism because some of their players, namely Sergio Busquets, Daniel Alves and Jose Pinto should hang their heads in shame. Barca are no angels themselves but you can’t put them in the same category as Real, mainly because that would do such a huge disservice to the genius of Messi and Guardiola. 

Mourinho believes Pep Guardiola should be ashamed of the European Cup he won in 2009 because of the dodgy officiating which he believes contributed to it. The hypocrisy that accompanies a statement like that FROM HIM is unbelievable.  Coming from the manager of the Porto team which produced the most disgraceful European final in recent memory it is an outrageous claim. Porto dived, cheated and conned their way to beating Celtic in the 2003 UEFA Cup Final with the help of a referee who gave everything to the Portuguese side on the night. I don't seem too remember Mourinho's shame at the goal Barca had incorrectly ruled out in the second leg last season which would of knocked his side out or the offside goal from Milito in the first leg. No it's only shame when he doesn't get the decisions the little child.

Mourinho thought he had stumbled across the masterplan of beating Barcelona by kicking them off the park but when you have the most expensive squad in the world at your disposal that really is a shithouse attitude to take. Mourinho himself coined the phrase “parking the bus" infront of the opposition goal when he was at Chelsea. Last night it was Mourinho’s side that tried to park the bus but Messi climbed into it, drove it out the stadium and won the game almost singlehandedly. The Real squad is stacked with 400m worth of talent yet last night they went into the game with no main striker. Personally, I think it’s the first time Mourinho has felt inferior to another manager, and he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Guardiola is better than him, he’s younger, he’s better dressed, he’s more popular and he doesn’t need “mind games” to win and Jose knows it. 

Before the game the media and Jose fans lapped up his “mind games”, they failed. It’s the most annoying phrase in football. There is a couple of managers who can pretty much say whatever they want, however incorrect and outrageous and certain people lap it up like a panting dog with “OMG OMG IT’S CLASSIC (insert name)!” “WHAT A CHARACTER THEY ARE!”, “THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN!!! LOLZ”. Then when a manager happens to respond, in Guardiola’s case this week, correctly, we then get the “OMG THEY’VE FALLEN FOR IT!!!!!”, “(insert name) IS CRACKING UP”, train of thought. Absolutely pathetic. As Mourinho sat in the stand last night, talking and chuckling to himself I couldn’t help but think any other manager would be accused of losing it, but when it’s Jose....”ohhhh what a character”. He’s not a character, he’s a cock.

The post match press conference is well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it but for all the wrong reasons. Just when you thought Mourinho couldn’t sink any lower he even tried to blame children’s charity UNICEF (no joke) for the result. You could have scripted his interview it was so obvious what was coming. Mourinho released the inevitable volley of abuse which diverted all the attention away from his poor team selection and dreadful tactics and towards Barcelona and the referee. Despite what Mourinho may say, I’ll bet he was delighted when Pepe was sent off. It gave him a great escape clause and an excuse when there shouldn’t of been any. You are at home and you had 29% possession, even Schalke managed more than that and they were dreadful. Barcelona were without Iniesta and had no recognised left back on the pitch and it was easy for them. Some of Barca’s players might have sunk to Mourinho’s level last night but at least they still had an interest in playing football and the fact it was Messi that lifted the game from being remembered as a near riot was fitting.

Finally, you’ve got to wonder how Spain have managed to win the European Championship and World Cup with this generation of players because the majority of the winning squad was on show last night and they clearly don’t get along much!