MY STARS ARE HURT BY CRUEL ATTACKS
Jose blames poor form on critics
JOSE MOURINHO admitted for the first time last night that criticism of his team is hurting him and his players.
The Portuguese manager takes Manchester united to his old club Chelsea this lunchtime mired in criticism and fresh from stinging comments by Old Trafford legends Paul Scholes and rio Ferdinand.
‘Yes, it bothers me,’ said Mourinho. ‘Because i am a man. My players, they care.’
The united manager claimed after his team’s dramatic 3-2 win over newcastle two weeks ago that he was the victim of a ‘manhunt’ and since then he has
been charged by the FA for mouthing obscenities into the camera after that game. Asked specifically if the criticism was affecting his team, he replied on Sky: ‘Yes — some of the players looked depressed in the first half (against Newcastle), with the score and also because the prematch was difficult for them. That weekend we didn’t sleep in the hotel. Everyone stayed at his own house and I think the players, when they woke up in the morning, they read that — because they read social media. What I can do is keep telling them that this is my problem to cope with, because I am the man, and let them enjoy their football the way they did against Newcastle in the second half. ‘No, I am not happy but if someone has to be the man, I would prefer it to be me rather than my players.’ Mourinho has now been given until Wednesday to respond to his FA charge. Asked if he thought he was being victimised by the FA, he said: ‘If I answer your question I’ll probably have another process because I cannot imply bias, so my answer is no answer.’ To add to Mourinho’s sense of persecution, United were fined by UEFA yesterday for turning up late for their last Champions League game at home to Valencia. The United team bus got stuck in traffic, meaning kick-off had to be put back five minutes. United were fined £13,200, while Mourinho was personally warned. The United squad travelled to London by train yesterday afternoon. Chile striker Alexis Sanchez was not with the team, but is understood to have joined them at the hotel last night after international duty. United lie eighth in the league but Mourinho said: ‘My determination doesn’t have to do with win or lose. I am always fresh. Every day I am fresh. Winning or losing obviously has an effect but, I promise you, the day after a match the result doesn’t matter. I wake up fresh.’ Mourinho has said he will not celebrate wildly if his team score or win today, even though Chelsea fans have given him a rough reception at Stamford Bridge recently. ‘For me this is just another game,’ he said. ‘Would I celebrate like crazy my team’s goal at Stamford Bridge or my team’s victory? I don’t think so, I think I would try to control myself and to respect the stadium and the supporters. I want to do well for my team, players and support. I am 100 per cent Manchester United.’
It was never easy to find recordings of amateur football games in the Nineties but with help from my friends in television I would arrive every Monday evening at Maurizio Sarri’s house with two VHS videocassettes of the team we were going to face on the following Sunday.
then I would have dinner with Maurizio, his wife Marina, son Nicole and goalkeeping coach Mirko tinagli and we would talk.
Mirko had been an amateur full back not a goalkeeper but when Maurizio started in the ninth tier of Italian football in 1991 he convinced his friend, who worked at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, to start reading books and watching videos about goalkeepers.
together they also planned their first summer of fitness training in the Palagio woods which are part of a farm now owned by Sting.
At each of those dinners I learned something. For each tactical question Sarri had an answer and he could demonstrate it with facts.
I was not surprised when he climbed so quickly through the ranks of non-league football.
As a journalist, I worked with several of the top Italian coaches and he was different. I got to know him well.
Fabrizio Mazzini, one of those who played for Sarri at FC Stia, his first coaching role, said: ‘His tactical ideas were a novelty for the amateurs.’
So were his superstitions. ‘ One Sunday before the game we drank three coffees and we won,’ said Mazzini. ‘ After this, he forced me to drink three coffees every Sunday for fear of breaking the spell.’
Maurizio tried to hide his superstitions when he moved into the professional game.
Luca Rialti, another of his players at Stia, recalled how — when they were in a car together and came to a hair-pin bend — he always had to light a cigarette, otherwise he thought the next game would not go well.
At Sansovino, Sarri would always park his car in a certain place.
Once, when a player unknowingly occupied his parking space, he moved the offending vehicle by pushing it with his. Andrea Rossi, a player at Sansovino, tells the story of how they won an away game and Maurizio demanded that the same bus driver returned for the following trip.
Sarri refuses to cross the white line on to the pitch. In Italian non-league, when the benches were on the opposite side to the dressing rooms, he could often be seen making his way behind the goals when the teams had already started playing.
More recently, when Napoli played against Roma in 2016, Sarri’s team were unbeaten in 22 league games at home.
Someone told Roma boss Luciano Spalletti about Sarri’s superstition to always be the last to enter the stadium.
So Spalletti pretended to go out and then hid and when Sarri was about to go out, Spalletti suddenly reappeared behind him.
Sarri saw him and tried to go back but it was too late. Roma won that match 3-1.
Sarri is so meticulous about everything and his work is so detailed, he leaves nothing to chance.
Ever since he was in the minor leagues he spent so much time on the set pieces — corner kicks, penalties and even throw-ins.
I gave him the nickname ‘Mr 33’ not because he had 33 set-pieces but there were a lot and this was an easy number to remember and the nickname stuck.
One of the turning points in his career came in 2003 when Arduino Casprini, the ambitious president of Sangiovannese, put his faith in Sarri, a coach who smoked so much and had never trained professionals before.
Casprini offered to pay Sarri 30,000 euros a year, more than double what he was earning at Sansovino.
He led Sangiovannese up into Serie C, the third tier of Italian football, for the first time, and won both derbies with Montevarchi for the first time in 51 years.
One of his key players was Francesco F Baiano, who played for fo Derby County from 1997-99. 19
‘He is one of the best coaches I hhave had,’ said Baiano.
‘the way he prepares the matches, m with meticulous work, very ve careful with attention to details, de I would say that it is unique.’ un
Maurizio M has changed some things th since those years. Not the time tim he dedicates to football but some som of his convictions.
In 2010, after he had been sacked three times and was not having a great season in Grosseto, I asked him why he did not try to play with three midfielders as Jose Mourinho had done when he won the treble with Inter.
Maurizio, who played for many years with 4-2-3-1, said: ‘I don’t think I will ever do it because it is harder to cover the width of the pitch with three midfielders.’
two year later, at Empoli, he was successful with 4-3-1-2 and then he moved on to 4-3-3 at Napoli.
today, he probably would not know what to do without the playmaker in front of the defender.
Proof perhaps that only great men have the courage to change their minds.