MOUR PLEASE!
Premier League needs Special One's touch
21/02/2009
IF ONLY that Jose Mourinho bloke had a bit more self-confidence, he might make a decent fist of football management.
He came over all bashful again last week. “Why have Chelsea suffered so much since I left? Because I left.”
A head the size of Birkenhead. But Mourinho is right, of course. Chelsea don’t just miss him. The Premier League misses him. Badly.
Sorry. The competitiveness of the Premier League misses him. We can forgive his excesses but not forget them.
His shameful denigration of Arsene Wenger, his calculated blackening of Anders Frisk’s name, the outrageous questioning of the Berkshire Ambulance Service’s professionalism, the tapping-up of Ashley Cole.
Even the suspicion that he courted England to force the hand of Inter. But Mourinho’s absence has left a void more yawning than we could have imagined.
And it will be put into sharp focus in the San Siro on Tuesday evening. Because Sir Alex Ferguson will come up against that rarest of opponent. Someone who doesn’t raise the white flag at the sight of the knight on his charger, his foot soldiers massed behind him.
Someone prepared to stand toe-to-toe, to rise to the challenge rather than shrivel into a cowardly ball.
United’s inexorable progress towards an 11th Premier League title has been characterised by their impregnability . . . and the capitulation of all around. Bar Aston Villa, maybe.
When Rafa Benitez produced the infamous sheet of paper, it was not him standing up to Ferguson — it was him getting his excuses in first. Only this week, the Spaniard was bemoaning United’s superior spending power.
Bonus
Arsene Wenger described Ferguson’s side as ‘untouchable’. Whether through choice or through economic pressure, the Frenchman now appears to be competing within different parameters. Where silverware is a bonus rather than a necessity.
And Chelsea have panicked. But thanks in no small part to a performance under Luiz Felipe Scolari at Old Trafford that was gutless.
Then we scroll down the league and find teams putting a red line through the fixture against United.
Fulham's performance in midweek was little more than a 90-minute guard of honour, sandwiched between gushing eulogies to Ferguson and United from Roy Hodgson.
Sir Alex will go into his Champions League quarter-final against Inter on a tide of effortless triumphs. And that will be one of United’s two gravest dangers. But Ferguson knows better than anyone else how to fight complacency.
And he also knows better than anyone else the second danger. Mourinho. Not only is that defining image of Mourinho cavorting down the Old Trafford touchline after Porto’s success still fresh, the record books show that Ferguson only once outwitted the Special One during his three-year tenure at Chelsea. In 12 attempts.
Lavish
Sure, he had the backing of Roman Abramovich’s spending at its most lavish but Mourinho set the example for his players.
He saluted the achievements of Ferguson but wasn’t scared of him. He admired a wonderful United team but not as much as he admired his own.
He acknowledged the world-class quality of players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney but believed he knew world-class ways to blunt them.
In short, he thinks Fergie is special — but not as special as him. And that is why the United manager will this week face the sort of challenge that has all but evaporated from the domestic climate.
That is why, regardless of which outstanding side comes out on top, the Premier League needs Mourinho back.
Whether it be at Chelsea, Liverpool or even Manchester City.
Because otherwise, United’s imperious reign will continue until the day Ferguson walks out of Old Trafford for good.
* * *
მდაა, ცუდად არის საქმე
Ferguson has an injury headache ahead of a mid-week UEFA Champions League meeting with Inter Milan.
Nemanja Vidic is suspended, while both Gary Neville and Wes Brown have been ruled out already, and now Ferguson seems certain to be without Jonny Evans, who limped off immediately after Ronaldo's winner.
Ferguson is now crossing his fingers that John O'Shea recovers from a sore heel in time to play against Jose Mourinho's side at the Giuseppe Meazza.
"It is a nightmare," added Ferguson. "Somewhere I have to find two centre-backs but it is looking very doubtful because Jonny is unlikely to play now."
This post has been edited by LA_NY on 22 Feb 2009, 04:24
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Manchester United Supporters' Association, Fergie's Red Army
