Jose’s not being paranoid, he’s a puppet of the TV billions
LET’S be honest, it is not easy to be fair to Jose Mourinho.
Not easy to take him seriously when he trots out one conspiracy theory after another.
Not easy to have any sympathy when he talks about Manchester United having “many enemies”.
Hence Roy Keane’s question on Thursday night.
“Why do we have to listen to that garbage?”
Now, you could rate Keane’s managerial acumen alongside Mourinho’s and wonder if the question carries much weight, but anyhow, it’s not all garbage.
The “enemies” bit is garbage, of course.
There are no “enemies” in authority.
Football’s administrators and officials may have their moments of sheer incompetence, but no one has it in for any particular club.
Marcos Rojo ate a banana during the Rostov match because he was tired. If United had as many “enemies” in authority as Mourinho suggests, Rojo would be taking a rest for the next couple of weeks after stamping on Eden Hazard.
Michael Oliver let him off – just as he let him off with a booking for one of the worst tackles of the season at Goodison Park.
Oliver also harshly dismissed Ander Herrera in the Chelsea match, leaving an exhausting hour for 10 men. There are fine margins that can go for and against you.
That’s pretty much how refereeing works.
It might be slightly different higher up the authoritative food chain, but, if anything, it often looks like the smaller clubs get a rawer deal.
Ask Bournemouth and Tyrone Mings.
United do not have “enemies” other than those who take the field against them.
But Mourinho is his own worst enemy because of his insatiable desire to win trophies and his respect for the integrity of competition.
It is not easy, but that is being fair to him. And it is fair for him to ask the question why his side have to play at midday on Sunday in the north-east.
That follows three games in the previous 10 days, which started with a 4,000mile round trip to Rostov and took in an FA Cup tie against the country’s best team on Monday night in London before the attritional return to the Europa League contest.
We all know the answer. Television.
“We should be the last team to play in the weekend. It just needs a little common sense, if they want,” said Mourinho.
But all the clubs know the score.
You cannot sell your television rights for a quite mind-boggling sum and not expect the buyers to have control. Simple as that. They might also argue that, with the fortunes from TV, any club should be able to get a squad capable of coping with the sort of demands United are having to cope with.
However, within any squad, there is a best team and Mourinho is loathe not to field what he thinks is the best team for a particular game. He could have pretty much thrown the game at Stamford Bridge, but did not.
In relation to some aspects of his conduct, integrity is not a word that gets overused, but it is his competitive integrity that puts such demands on his players.
Pretty soon, he might wonder whether or not to take a calculated gamble of prioritising the Europa League over the Premier League.
But it won’t happen, not least because Mourinho is aware the integrity – that word again – of the Premier League has to be maintained. Good on him. He has got no chance of getting the sort of help he wants from fixture schedulers, but when he complains about the lack of it, he is not talking garbage.
It’s not easy, but let’s be fair to Jose Mourinho.
ALL Premier League and FA Cup permutations considered, it is but still unlikely... let’s imagine qualify Arsenal do not for European football. would Arsene Why Wenger go? If not being in Europe advantage is the huge everyone seems then next season to think, the could be by far biggest chance of winning Wenger has his fourth and league title. final Happy days... crack on Arsene.