Tin-Pot Dictator
‘LOOKING at Jose Mourinhos hand gestures and grandiosity calls to mind an image of Charlie Chaplin playing The Great Dictator.
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| ‘It was never a sending-off’ |
When youre winning it can look so very impressive, the little man doing his bit for the people; when youre losing, the man with the small feet and the big voice can look like a bumptious fool.
And so it is with Mourinho, who followed his big words before Chelseas match in the Nou Camp with more talking afterwards, in which he complained that Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona coach, had had a half-time chat with the games referee, Anders Frisk.
It all seems that the cocksure manager is a little rattled by his teams sudden inability to win matches. And Henk ten Cate, Barcas assistant coach, has noticed.
Coaches are always moaning about decisions in big matches, he says in the Times. Its a bit pathetic to react the way hes done.
To the Suns mind, this leads to the headline PATHETIC LIARS. Barcelona insist the Blues invented the story about the Rijkaard-Frisk conflab and lied about the line-up of his team.
The man who seemed like a new broom when things were going well for his Chelsea, now looks like a poor sport, a bad loser and a bit of a tin-pot megalomaniac.
Meanwhile, the other big footballing news is that… hold on a moment, while we find it… Oh, yes, Middlesbrough are through to the final 16 of the Uefa Cup. Hurray!
And after youve heard about Mourinhos moaning and then some more about Mourinhos moaning, you can read about that Uefa Cup win in the Sun.
For fans of Boro, this could appear to be a slight on their teams performance. The lads are going well in the pan-European competition, yet the bleating of a sore loser takes centre stage.
But, in truth, the Uefa Cup has little or no allure. If you disagree, ask yourself this: which country do AK Graz (Times) or Grazer AK (Sun) or AK Grazer (Telegraph), who lost to Boro, play in?
The answer is Austria. Well done, you.
And now for the tie-breaker: which country are Heerenveen based in and can you name one (ONE) of the players? (Last night Newcastle beat this outfit in the Uefa Cup.)
Way to go on Holland. And congratulations to Mrs Breuer for remembering what her son Michel does for a living.
Now look out for Sundays questions on the Carling Cup ’
Posted: 25th, February 2005 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
