We don’t know how dubious the methods of Canal+ were, but we DO know that Jose’s comments were ill-advised and he now has the perfect distraction. You get the impression that Canal+ may not be getting too many more interviews with Jose Mourinho in the near future.
The Portuguese didn’t go full Man-of-War in his Istanbul press conference today but he was a man evidently hurt by the publication of comments he believed that he had made in private , comments that will have necessitated some pretty awkward backtracking and apologies over the last 24 hours or so.
The rights and wrongs will have been debated in the offices of the French television channel at length, conversations we weren’t and will likely never be privy to, but rather than claim that Canal+ should be « embarrassed », the Chelsea manager may be better served looking closer to home.
After all, who really should be the most humiliated here?
Jose’s suggestion that the entire media should be abashed at the conduct of one of their colleagues (colleague used in a very broad, international sense here) is surely no different to suggesting that another manager, perhaps Laurent Blanc is sufficiently removed and irrelevant, should be embarrassed by Mourinho’s witterings about « little horses » and pantomime antics.
Furthermore, savaging key first-team players at a corporate sponsors event – whether off-camera or not – is a needless and incomprehensible risk to take at a time when Chelsea are battling in the tightest title race in years and chasing an outside chance of Champions League glory.
The biggest upshot of this storm-in-a-teacup whistlestop-saga is that Jose is upset. And despite his somewhat loose tongue you can feel some sympathy with a man who believed he was speaking in private while the man at the other end of the microphone had somewhat different ideas.
But while the fear is that we will see this this « embarrassment » sending Mourinho inside his shell, the reality is that such an eventuality is unlikely.
The master of distraction is used to deflecting the focus away from his players and onto himself. He may well have an ethical point if he feels that he has been wronged by devious journalists at the French channel but this afternoon’s attack once more serves as a distraction, this time from his own failings.
Even as a joke, suggesting you have no strike force is hardly a comment to be making when your forwards are at the lowest of ebbs with regards to confidence.
And he knows that what he told Canal was needless and stupid.
Far be it from anyone to question Jose’s own track record, but we all do things we regret.
This is the man who poked Tito Vilanova in the eye before referring to him as ‘Penis’ in the subsequent press conference.
The same man who nearly faced legal action for calling Arsene Wenger a ‘voyeur’.
The man who was also labelled an « enemy of football » by UEFA referees chief Volker Roth for his role in Anders Frisk’s retirement.
See through the masquerade and it’s obvious that while deep down he’ll be ruing his decision to so bullishly criticise his low-on-confidence forwards, as far as distraction is concerned for Jose, the only way is ethics.
Ed Malyon
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/jose-mourinho-master-distraction-any-3182188#ixzz2uMHbrOwW
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook
