No popularity contest: Mourinho is interested in
winning, not making friends with sparkling football
Jose Mourinho took his
Real Madrid team abroad for a competitive fixture for the
first time this week and had some of the club's stalwart purists
wringing their hands at the indecency of it
all.
For years the club has been
obsessed with image. When President Florentino Perez presented
Cristiano Ronaldo to 80,000 supporters a year ago, he spoke of the
club needing to 'win the hearts of football fans everywhere'. It
was the same message he delivered when David Beckham arrived six
years earlier.
Real have not become the
richest club of the 21st century by winning things, they've done it
by assembling the most photogenic footballers into one team and
never turning away the press or the public.
Mourinho is having none of it,
and he took the blueprint and blew his nose in it this
week.
The windows of the lobby of Le
Cote de Saint Jacques hotel in Auxerre where the team were staying
had been covered with brown paper from the floor to the
ceiling.
Supporters used to mingle with
the stars, now they can't even see Iker Casillas come down to ask
reception why there are three shower caps and two shoe-shine kits
in his room but no toothpaste.
When the hour of the press
conference arrived the public face of one of football's most famous
institutions was wearing his tie at half-mast and in no mood to
answer three separate questions about the same player he had left
out of the squad, and had never wanted the club to sign in the
first place.
'You keep on about Pedro Leon
as if he were Zidane or Maradona,' was the, now famous, reply to a
third question on the subject before he proceeded to tell those
asking the questions how to do their jobs. 'Why don't you ask me
about who is playing instead of about who isn't. If I was a sports
journalist my first question would be "who is in the
team".'
He had also responded to a
question about comments made by Sevilla's new coach Gregorio
Manzano by asking: 'Who is Gregorio Manzano?' and when another
asked if he could guarantee good football soon, he replied: 'Can
you guarantee you will still be here tomorrow?'
With the public relations and
player power dealt with he sent out a team with three defensive
midfielders in it (Galatico blashphemy) to claim a 1-0 victory. It
was his 35th win in Champions League competition – one more than
the last manager to win the trophy with Real Madrid, Vicente Del
Bosque.
and don't mention Pedro Leon (right) to
Mourinho...
Real Madrid had kept clean
sheets in their first two Champions League games for the first time
since the 2002-03 season and were top of the group but no-one was
very impressed.
They have scored just nine
goals so far this season having scored 24 at the same stage of the
last campaign - at least the general strike in Spain on Wednesday meant fewer people
were reading the match reports.
Post match, the charm offensive
continued. 'Can I get up now and leave?,' Mourinho asked
sarcastically at the end of his press conference having being
criticized for walking out 24 hours earlier.
And Cristiano Ronaldo refused
to speak after the game. 'I'm anxious, I can't talk,' he was
recorded by Spanish TV as saying as he made for the plane home – a
jibe at the Spanish press who have put his goal drought down to an
'anxiety problem'.
'More goals less chewing gum'
is being demanded of Mourinho, who has been getting through three
packets per game – another unsightly image as far as some of the
club's supporters are concerned.
Back in Madrid yesterday, training was behind
closed doors and the daily player-press conference was cancelled.
It's a bunker mentality that has also affected the fans.
The area of the club's
Valdebebas training complex dedicated to autograph hunters was the
first thing the coach removed. Real Moudrid is not
interested in winning any popularity contests.
For now the powers-that-be are
standing up for the man they gave a four-year contract to at the
start of the season. But old habits die hard. Vice-president Emilio
Butragueno forgot himself this week when he asked about that
explosive press conference. Churning out one of Real Madrid's stock
answers he replied simply: 'We will assess things at the end of the
season'.
