Even by the ridiculously over hyped life of Jose Mourinho, this has been quite a week in the world of the Special One. It is also, to my own regret, the time when my long held admiration for one of the world’s greatest ever football operators took a severe hammering. The ramifications of his very uncomfortable spat with Eva Caniero could already be a defining moment in the Blues’ season.
I have long chuckled at the crazy world of the Portuguese Pantomime Villain. His quips to camera during interviews; his histrionics in the technical area and his playful yet ever-deliberate posing to the gallery have become a staple diet of Premiership matches over the years. And they have also angered and enraged rival fans and supporters around the globe wherever he has gone – as if they somehow haven’t been aware of the machinations of the legendary boss by now.
Yet the Chelsea chief has, in my opinion, badly miscalculated his latest weekly tirade, and, aside from leaving the most bitter of tastes in what is, after all, still a ‘sport’ (and all the ethical and moral perceptions that it should therefore encourage), even the great man himself has looked genuinely under fire this week. It certainly appeared to transmit itself to his players during their 3-0 humbling at the hands of Manchester City.
These are the kind of games that Mourinho lives for. High stakes, tactical shoot outs involving his arch rivals; the kind of contests that has all of us – even his most ardent critics – purring in admiration (begrudgingly or otherwise) at his tactical acumen and tremendous mastery of psychology. The very reasons he is probably behind only Sir Alex Ferguson in the history of the greatest managers to grace a British football stadium.
Tellingly, however, Mourinho seems to have suffered the unthinkable: a loss of confidence. And if that spells trouble for Chelsea, it certainly won’t make pretty viewing for us mere mortals if this current malaise is not solved by a wave of the Abramovich cheque book or the reinstatement of a certain physician. Like Ferguson, Mourinho has sailed through his career based on virtually impeccable results and the elevation that this success has brought him.
But it also means that we see the ugly side of the game. It is hard to bemoan a man who has mastered his art so wonderfully, but with that comes the distasteful. Every decision against his team must be questioned or ridiculed. Every comment in the slightest bit negative must be deemed a personal attack to refute, and in the craving for victory, morality, dignity and gentlemanly grace disappear quicker than a Sunderland back four.
Yet in the main, we have got used to it. And it has brought the 52 year old and his associated clubs glorious success in many guises – which is why my admiration of him once knew no bounds. Yet the barracking of Caniero was hugely unpleasant and hard to fathom. Yes, great winners are almost sickened by the thought of losing – and it is this almost psychotic trait that sets them apart from the also rans. But the public spat is something Ferguson would never have done to an existing employee, and it whipped up such a storm that even Chelsea followers were heard suggesting that their hero had gone too far.
I don’t believe for one minute that Mourinho is the ignorant, misogynistic dinosaur the media have labelled him with such delight this week. I suspect behind the media glare he is probably all charm and charisma – but the irony is that with the fall out no where near settling as yet – the great figure of English football may have met his match in the form of…whisper it…a woman! Something his external image just cannot compute. Like every great, successful team, Chelsea attract venomous envy and extreme jealousy from rival fans – but this week, there was a large feeling that their dismantling against Manchester City was deserved and enjoyed by many neutrals. And for this Mourinho must surely take the blame.
Maybe the groundbreaking defeat at the hands of his old foe Arsene Wenger two weeks ago was the catalyst that irked Jose so much. Yet the facts now make grim reading: one point from six after just two games is not the end of the world in August. But with Manchester’s City and United (and then possibly Liverpool on Monday) taking maximum points so far, I will predict right now that the title will not be heading back to Stamford Bridge in the first half of 2016. And I am certainly not anti-Mourinho or Chelsea.
Against City, Chelsea looked ragged and unconvincing – much as they had against Swansea the week before and even for spells in the Community Shield at Wembley. The 3-0 defeat could have been more, and the effortless ease with which the Chelsea machine normally purrs into action was missing at the Etihad. The players looked as under fire as their talismanic leader.
One final word on Caniero: like match official Sian Massey, her presence in a male-dominated world of shallow machismo has long been a matter of media interest (not to mention very questionable terrace-chant behaviour). ‘Pin-up girls’ in the egotistical male world of top flight football have TV and newspaper bosses in raptures, with sometimes, sadly, very little reference that they are incredibly talented in their professional fields.
Yet Caniero has probably unwittingly made a new career path for herself. If she does depart from Chelsea, there will be no shortage of media or celebrity offerings, because she has done the incredibly difficult – bring football from the back pages to the front. How astounding it would be if her (potentially new) career trajectory signaled a crash for Mourinhos…
