Card waver Mourinho to meet
managers' leader
John Barnwell, the chief executive of the League Managers
Association, will remind Jose Mourinho that he should not be
gesturing for players to be booked when he has a meeting with the
Chelsea manager early next month. Mourinho gesticulated that
Newcastle's Nicky Butt should have been awarded a yellow card at St
James' Park on Wednesday night, three days after calling for
Everton's Andrew Johnson to be booked during Chelsea's 3-2 victory
at Goodison Park.
Barnwell does not believe Mourinho should be disciplined for his
behaviour, although he admitted the Chelsea manager had overstepped
the mark. "We are not calling for action to be taken," said
Barnwell. "There will be private words behind the scenes, which I
do normally if we dislike things. Waving [imaginary] yellow cards,
whether it is flippant or aggressive, whether it's players or
managers, is not acceptable. I will see Jose in a fortnight's time
and no doubt we will talk about these minor issues.
"We deplore players waving [imaginary] yellow cards and through the
managers and through the PFA [Professional Footballers'
Association] I think we've had some effect [on players], and now
you are seeing very much less of that on the pitch. If we get one
manager [waving cards], no matter how flippant - and I think Jose's
was a flippant one - then that is something that is not desirable.
But Glenn Roeder handled it beautifully. He got straight to the
heart of it, the two managers spoke and, in his words, the thing
has been put to bed."
