Mourinho exits as Madrid murmurs mount
Monday 16 March 2009 12:00
NEWS: Weekend round-up
Jose Mourinho will do just about anything to skip the post-match television interviews.
Getting sent off was a guarantee that the Portuguese was halfway home before his sidekick Beppe Baresi completed his duties as fall-guy.
There was a time – honestly, there was, maybe just before Christmas – when it seemed that Mourinho had one over the local media and even secured grudging respect from his peers.
However, that was a fleeting moment of goodwill in what has been the most stormy relationship since Carlo Ancelotti’s fractious time in charge of Juventus.
The loss to Manchester United ensured that it was open season on the Nerazzurri boss once again and, never one to go on the back foot, the Portuguese was a figure of coiled rage when he took his place on the bench for Sunday evening’s home fixture with Fiorentina.
Thunder-faced Mourinho takes the bench
It was an opportunity for the San Siro crowd to show their own appreciation for the team’s heroic efforts in Europe – by booing and whistling as the team trotted out.
All it needed was the first contentious decision for Mourinho to come racing out of the dugout to berate the person with the most unenviable job in Italy football: the referee.
Spending the next 90 minutes or so demanding that cards be meted out on a more regular basis, the moody one finally got his way when the put-upon official decided to oblige and send him scurrying down the tunnel.
A few mumbled words to the print media and then he was off in that flash car Roman Abramovich gave him, zooming up the road to his Lake Como retreat – no doubt to brood on whether it is all worth it.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice, proving once again that he has no problem producing the goods on the home front, but the big Swede’s less than straightforward reply to whether he will be up for another tilt at the Champions League next season suggested that he may not.
“We’ll see,” shrugged Ibra, no doubt eyeing his own escape route.
"Yeah yeah, whatever"
Reports on Monday claim that the pair will be decamping to Madrid – which makes a change from reading “Mourinho to Manchester City” headlines.
With owner Massimo Moratti in Miami and the players given a few days off after such tumultuous week, there will be time now for Mourinho to get down to working on that dossier for European domination he has promised.
While it remains to be seen if Jose and Ibra are still in Italian football next season, there is no doubt that Filippo Inzaghi will be hanging around penalty areas for a few more years to come.
He may have his detractors but you cannot deny that SuperPippo is still one of the game’s real showmen. Who else would have such belief in his own ability to have a shirt with 300 printed on the back waiting for the moment he hit the landmark?
Inzaghi will turn 36 soon and, amazingly, has confirmed that he expects 19-year-old Alberto Paloschi to become his heir apparent. However, the way things are going Paloschi should be around 27 when that happens.
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About Richard Whittle
Despite the name,
Richard Whittle is so at home in Italy that some call him Riccardo Rossi. He has lived and worked in Italy for the last 15 years as a football journalist and works as Italian soccer commentator for the English-speaking world covering Serie A, Champions League, Europa League and Italian Cup matches as well as Italy internationals. With Paul Visca, Richard concocts the regular
Calcio & Coffee podcast.