Jose Mourinho's ability to raise a press conference from
the banal to the incendiary won him as many friends and admirers as
it did enemies and critics during his time in England.
And barely six months in to his career in Italy, the
Portuguese's outspoken commentary on the state of the local game
has raised the shackles of peers, media and officials alike. Though
the forces stood in opposition to him currently outnumber his
supporters by some distance.
A running feud with Juventus and fellow former Chelsea manager
Claudio Ranieri and an
on screen argument with respected Sky
Italia presenter Mario Sconcerti (above), following
criticism for his finger to the lips celebration after Inter ground
out a win over Udinese, announced his arrival in Serie A.
But the frosty relations with both the fourth estate and his
immediate rivals plumed to new depths in the wake of Inter Milan's
controversial 3-3 draw with Roma at the weekend.
Mourinho will face disciplinary action after he railed against
criticism of his young striker Mario Balotelli, who went to ground
under a weak challenge from Marco Motta to earn Inter a penalty -
that Balottelli converted himself - when the scores were 3-1 to
Roma and Inter's procession to a fourth straight Scudetto starting
to look less comfortable that it had for some time.
In the wake of a fractious and ill-tempered game, Roma coach
Luciano Spaletti has already been banned for one match for
addressing the fourth official in a "provocative and insulting
manner", while Roma were fined 8,000 euros after their fans
racially abused Balotelli, who is of Ghanaian origin.
And Roma Midfielder Daniele De Rossi, too, is to be investigated
after he said "if referees are allowed to make mistakes, I don't
understand why they should always be made in the same
direction".
The media, too, we quick to point to Inter's good fortune and in
a league still reeling from the damaging calciopoli match-fixing
scandal of 2006 the inference was that Mourinho's side were perhaps
benefiting from an uneven playing field.
Mourinho, as you might expect, was not willing to let this
slight pass, and reacted angrily with a remarkable tirade in which
his scattergun approach saw verbal bullets firing in the direction
of all his major rivals for the title.
"I don't like intellectual prostitution, I like intellectual
honesty," Mourinho said. "I think that in the last days there has
been a great intellectual manipulation, a great work to change and
manipulate public opinion.
"No one talked about Juve, who won many points through referee
mistakes."
After attacking Roma and Juventus Mourinho also had a dig at
Milan and his rant has been the hot topic of Italian football ever
since. Juventus, particularly sensitive to accusations of
favouritism these days, went as far as to post a message of
displeasure on their website.
"Juventus express their astonishment and disgust, asking Inter
to publicly denounce these comments," it read. "With his
statements, the Inter coach has not only shown a lack of respect
for Juventus and their 14 million fans but to all of Italian
football."
Mourinho, unsurprisingly, has so far remained unrepentant.
The former Chelsea manager has not enjoyed the same relationship
with the Italian media as he did with their English counterparts.
In England the young, dynamic coach was viewed as a breath of fresh
air, a man unafraid to speak his mind and to hell with the
consequences - in Italy he is simply viewed as arrogant.
But love him or loath him, there is never a dull moment with
Mourinho, as the Italians are quickly learning.
Fabrizio Bocca, writing on daily la Repubblica, was not a lone
voice in calling for calm. "Someone must end this bullfight," he
wrote, "or for the next meeting of Juventus and Inter we may just
as well start slapping each other, having run out of words."
A laudable sentiment, but the chances of Mourinho running out of
words any time soon remain as distant as they ever have.
