La Liga Loca

A sideways look at Spanish football

Tim Stannard

Madrid-based Mourinho mania cranked up another notch

Monday 24 May 2010 13:22

La Liga Loca hasn’t particularly got anything against Italian football, but it was really rooting for Bayern Munich, on Saturday night.

Actually, LLL’s pants are totally on fire. The blog has gone very native after a lengthy spell in Spain and has an awful lot against Italian football. After all, if matches are going to be fixed, why not make them even vaguely exciting in the process?

But the point is that LLL couldn’t give a rat’s rucksack about Inter. Or the Germans for that matter. But it did want to see Bayern batter their Italian opponents just to see how Marca span their way out of a football fix that would see the man now officially branded as T.S.O (The Special One) looking a little less bullet-proof.

Unfortunately, only Arjen Robben out of the German contingent bothered turning up for the final so José Mourinho’s godlike status went up a notch by winning a second Champions League title and looking very cool in the process.

Monday’s edition of the paper sees their second exclusive interview with the soon-to-be Bernabeu boss and the editorial oozing that “the super-production of Florentino finally has a top-class director...if he won everything with Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan, then why can’t he manage it with a squad that is better than anything he’s had before?”

“Because football doesn’t always work like that, which is why everyone still watches it” is the blog’s response but one that will fall on very deaf ears at Marca HQ.

The Barcelona press are starting to react to the news and are already sounding very spooked indeed - which is always tremendously fun to watch - with Sport’s José Lluis Carazo sulking that “it's jealously over the Champions of Barcelona that is driving Madrid.”

Unable to suggest that the treble-winning Mourinho is not much cop as a manger, Sport’s edition has gone numbers crazy with the claim that it will cost (Dr Evil finger in mouth) €120 million to bring T.S.O to the Santiago Bernabeu!

The paper reports that Mourinho will make €80m over four years (twice the amount given everywhere else) and that it will cost €20m to bring his training staff over from Milan. Then there’s the €12m need to fire Pellegrini and his posse. Where the other €8m is to be spent is left in the air by Sport.

However, there is still a lot of other football fun going on in Spain, not that you’d know it when reading the main papers.

Atlético Madrid are set to make a decision on whether to renew Quique Sánchez Flores’ contract. And yes, any club in their right mind would have done it right after the UEFA cup final. But Atlético have not been in their right mind for some time.

But there is still some good news for the Rojiblancos - but not for poor West Brom - with the disastrous defender Pablo Ibañez apparently heading to the Hawthorns with his contract now up at the Vicente Calderón.

AS are also reporting that Fran Mérida has signed for the club from Arsenal, although LLL feels that the midfielder may simply be a poor man’s José Jurado.

Goalkeeper Diego López and striker Giuseppe Rossi are set to do one from El Madrigal with Villarreal manager, Juan Carlos Garrido, noting that the financial times are testing at the moment for the club. “If there are offers for these players we’ll probably accept them” admitted Garrido.

Everyone is up for sale at the Oh-No! Estadi with Mallorca about to go into administration and set to lose manager Gregorio Manzano to either Sevilla or Atlético Madrid. Anyone with the means of paying him, really.

And in news that is probably only exciting to the blog and maybe one heroic reader, Valladolid central midfielder Borja Fernández has joined Getafe to replace the departing Fabio Celestini. And with that transfer, José Mourinho will find that Barcelona is not the only club he will have to beat back, next season.

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About Tim Stannard

La Liga Loca is the playground for the evil, more childish half of Tim Stannard’s psyche to be let loose. The other 50% is a contributor to FourFourTwo magazine, Football365, Sabotage Times as well as other publications such as UEFA Champions Magazine and When Saturday Comes. He is also a regular guest on Real Madrid TV’s Extra Time show and works as a TV producer extraordinaire for hire. To contact Tim directly email laligaloca@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

	May 24, 2010 15:13 tariqo said: can't wait to see him with madrid playing with 10 players in the back against the world champion real madrid sign this guy because he lost 1-0 only to barcelona ^_^ whata sh*** team hahaha
	May 24, 2010 15:22 Guerrero said: I think this was Mourinho's plan all along. Start in the Premiership, work his way to Italy, then deliver the coup de grace in Spain. Barcelona has always been his target. Delenda est Barcelona! It all started with Bobby Robson. The Englishman was attending a Catalan function with Jose as his side translating. Bobby turned to the Portuguese and said, "Why don't you go get me a gin and tonic?" In Spanish. Jose stared, stunned. Me? "Yeah, you," said Bobby (in the Queen's dialect now). "Need to be good for something, t*sser." Jose never forgot that. When you see the Special One mumbling to himself along the touchline, he's saying to the effect of, "Good for something, huh? How's that? Good enough for you? Huh? Huh?!" Underneath it all, Jose is a haunted soul. Pity him.
	May 24, 2010 16:52 don_cule said: Madrid have been famous for picking players with the right 'personality,' and Jose certainly has Personality (personality with a capital P). But you know his issues with the Italian media may well turn into his issues with the Spanish media...i bet by December MARCA will be doing their best to get rid of him and hire the next rising star coach...Roberto Martinez!
	May 24, 2010 17:31 Vergilius said: Well good luck to José. I sincerely hope it will be difficult for both Barca and Real to match the point totals they accumulated last season, because it took a lot of the exitement out of games that the two big teams seemed so sure to win almost every time. I hope and believe that modestly funded but well-organised and well-run sides (on and off the pitch) should be able to give either team a game. Here's hoping there will be more teams of this kind about next season.
	May 24, 2010 17:40 DonnyDT said: Someone noted over the weekend that RM's buying Balon D'Or policy now extends to coaches.   / :( //I was rooting for Bayern for the same reason too.  But Bayern just rolled over.  Had that been RM in the final they would have been taking shots on target until the final whistle.
	May 24, 2010 18:20 wastlord said: For Jose to prove he truly is a phenomenal manager he must win, and win in style at Madrid. If he can change his ways and create a team that imposes its own way of playing upon others and dominates the game too, then he can take his place in the upper reaches of the manager’s pantheon. Otherwise Perez will tire quickly of his ode to pragmatism and jettison the special one at the first sign of 4-5-1 (or 6-3-1 more like) even if results are underwhelming. Has anyone ever seen a Jose team put some hapless minows to the sword? Not sure the fans will appreciate too many 1-0 victories (82nd min pen from the gay icon) over Xerez et al. 4 months I give it, a year tops.
	May 24, 2010 19:13 Vergilius said: After 2 champ. league crowns, 2 prems. and 2 scudettos Mourinho still has to prove he is a top manager? Dio Mio!
	May 24, 2010 20:17 JohnPJones said: It's going to be brilliant next season... (God I wish I were a neutral), fantastic drama, great actors, great controversy... and Mourinho now, bloody magic.
	May 25, 2010 08:56 Giovanni said: Guerrero, i'm still chuckling at that whole inferiority complex story, brilliant! Jose is actually deep down, an evil mastermind, whose quest it will be to become one of the most recognisable names in the history of the game.. Whilst becoming disliked by everyone in the process. I see him coaching Real to a demolition of Barca; going back to england and stuffing chelsea with either liverpool or manchester; then going back to milan, except the red half this time.. And guiding Ac Milan to a memorable few seasons, destroying the hearts of inter fans in the process. Then the return of the prodical son back to Barca to spite Real in their faces for releasing him even though he was the provider of the elusive 10th european cup. Hell then why not Benfica right at the end, to stick it to Porto. If only football were a soap drama.. Oh wait it kind of is..

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