It's time Mourinho sweetened up - and ditched the humbug
Merry Christmas to Adrian Boothroyd. May Santa bring the Watford manager what every good boy deserves. Last Saturday his team were victims of an outrageously poor decision at a crucial moment in their Championship promotion match at Burnley. A linesman wrongly ruled that Ben Foster, the goalkeeper, had cleared the ball from just outside his area, and the home team went 2-0 up from the ensuing free-kick.
Boothroyd's philosophical post-match reaction was that "officials make mistakes just like managers". What would Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger have said if the same thing had happened at Highbury the next day? The linesman's life would not be worth living. Goodness knows what Mourinho would have put in his Christmas card. You may have noticed that a queue of lippy defendants is forming outside FA headquarters again. Goodwill to all linesmen? Bah, Humbug.
Bad example to kids? No, adults caught up by the blame culture. I watched my 10-year-old play in a wonderful schools rugby match a month or so ago. I don't know all the nuances of the rugby rules book. Some believe the man who took charge of the last World Cup final doesn't either. But the parents from the visiting school clearly did - much better than our games master in the middle. My son's team spent 75 per cent of the match on their opponents' line and finally scored the only try of the game in the dying moments. When 'our' referee blew the final whistle a few minutes later, a visiting parent told his audience "he had to blow because we had got in their half". I told him to "get a life". If only I had the guts to tell certain Premiership managers the same.
There were contentious decisions in Chelsea's win at Arsenal, but the best team won. The outcome was unaffected. Sure, Arsenal had a goal wrongly disallowed at 0-0. But it was a borderline decision complicated by the distance between Robin van Persie and the last defender, and the presence of Thierry Henry lingering in an 'offside position'. The Michael Essien incident and the other refereeing talking points at Highbury were all open to debate, and yet Mourinho spoke of the two red cards that "should have been shown" to Philippe Senderos as if they were matters of fact. They weren't. And then there was Wenger's sly dig about the refereeing team being on "the Chelsea team".
Yet we are just as bad. After the press conference, journalists discussed whether Wenger's glib remark was a joke or jibe. It was actually both, and while the Arsenal manager should really be above such comments, it was not delivered with any great malice. But it was headline fodder and the back pages were full of it. And then came the leak of the follow-up story about the Christmas card from Mourinho to Wenger, and the feud rumbles on. The relationship between football and its media is in a pretty sorry state, isn't it?
Twenty-five years ago, I was a cub radio reporter on Merseyside who travelled and socialised with the best team in Europe. You can argue that any objectivity was compromised by such close association, but I had a true insight into what made Liverpool tick. I have no such insight into Chelsea or Arsenal now. I'm just an observer trying to pick my way through the propaganda and prattle. The truth is shrouded and clouded by mind games and mindless bias.
The plot of this soap opera is certainly compelling. Mourinho has quickly made himself the central figure. He walked on to the big stage proclaiming himself as 'special', and he has been true to his boast. He is good and he knows it. But good grace plays no part. I am coming to the conclusion that Mourinho really believes Chelsea are at their best when he is rallying the football world against them. He likes a rumpus as much as John McEnroe did.
I have a bee in my bonnet about news reporting within the Westminster village. All intrigue, no facts. Nod, nod, wink, wink. The electorate don't understand EC budgets and education reform, so the issues are turned into political footballs to kick about until someone resigns. Non-political football is heading the same way. Do you know Sven-Goran Eriksson holds private press briefings? Mourinho, Wenger and the others hold public briefings. Adversarial courtroom interrogations that run until someone scores a point, spills a headline or walks out. Pencils sharpened, blinkers on. Adrian Boothroyd has the bigger picture but it's just not news.
By Clive Tyldesley (Filed: 24/12/2005)
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