A Flirt, Four Points and a Barb: A Classic José Mourinho Week But Why Now?

 José Mourinho has seemingly been having fun this week and will be delighted that Antonio Conte reacted to his comment that other managers ‘cry and cry and cry’. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
José Mourinho has seemingly been having fun this week and will be delighted that Antonio Conte reacted to his comment that other managers ‘cry and cry and cry’. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
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A Flirt, Four Points and a Barb: A Classic José Mourinho Week But Why Now?

 José Mourinho has seemingly been having fun this week and will be delighted that Antonio Conte reacted to his comment that other managers ‘cry and cry and cry’. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
José Mourinho has seemingly been having fun this week and will be delighted that Antonio Conte reacted to his comment that other managers ‘cry and cry and cry’. Photograph: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images

This has been a classic week for José Mourinho. The question, though, is why? Or why now? Why is the 54-year-old, whose team are flying through the early stages of the season, doing and saying things that he does not seem to need to?

Mourinho’s side are second in the Premier League after eight games, lead their Champions League group with maximum points, have scored 33 times in all competitions and remain unbeaten.

Yet at the weekend Mourinho was praising PSG’s “magic, quality, youth”. Then there was a statement that he would not finish his career at Old Trafford. When quizzed about this in Lisbon before the game against Benfica he said: “I ask how is it possible in modern football that a manager is going to last 15 or 20 years?”

However, during the summer tour of the US he suggested precisely this: “I am ready for the next 15 [years], I would say. Here? Yes, why not? After David [Moyes] and Mr Van Gaal, I come to my second year and hopefully I can stay and give that stability that the club wants.”

Mourinho’s criticism of other managers came on Wednesday night after United’s 1-0 win at the Estádio da Luz. He was in relaxed form, discussing how his team lead their group with nine points. These have come at the cost of only one goal and this, plus the stalemate at Anfield, moved Mourinho to suggest that being accomplished defensively can feel like a “crime”.

The reporters in the room seized on the comment and so it was put to the Portuguese whether he thought his side were unfairly maligned. Then came vintage Mourinho: “With other managers, with other players, I’m pretty sure that, yes, [they get an easier ride than me]. But that’s not the problem for us and there is another situation maybe I’m guilty of, I never speak about injuries. Other managers cry and cry and cry – I don’t cry.”

The sense was that this was a catch‑all statement, aimed at whichever manager felt they were the target. A thousand miles away at Stamford Bridge, Antonio Conte, who had just overseen a 3-3 draw with Roma, provided the bullseye. Instead of neatly sidestepping Mourinho’s comments, the Italian reacted precisely how United’s manager might have hoped. “If he is speaking about me, I think he has to think about his team and start looking at himself, not others,” Conte said. “I think that, a lot of times, Mourinho [likes to concentrate on] what is happening at Chelsea. A lot of times, also last season. [He has] to think about his team.”

Mourinho, a very intelligent man, calculates every comment he makes to the media. He will know there is a perception that he can be a serial complainer about injuries. In fact, after claiming he did not cry about not having players available he went on to list those who are injured at the moment: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Marcos Rojo and Marouane Fellaini.

Conte should have laughed off the barbs. Instead he became Mourinho’s latest victim and was left looking like a man feeling the pressure of his side having not won for three weeks and who fell hook, line and sinker for the bait.

It is difficult to answer why the United manager is having the week he is having at precisely this time. The PSG comments might well have been about jockeying for the lucrative pay rise he wants from United – he is keen on vastly improved terms on the contract that expires in the summer of 2019 – but whatever the main reason behind Mourinho’s behaviour, it does not seem to be hurting United. And this, perhaps, is one of the advantages of his public strategy: it allows the players to just play.

The Guardian Sport



La Liga President Rejects Courtois’ Plea to Delay Real Madrid’s 25-26 Opener for More Rest Time

Thibaut Courtois #1 of Real Madrid C. F. reacts during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semifinal match between Winner Game 59 and Winner Game 60 at MetLife Stadium on July 09, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Getty Images/AFP)
Thibaut Courtois #1 of Real Madrid C. F. reacts during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semifinal match between Winner Game 59 and Winner Game 60 at MetLife Stadium on July 09, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Getty Images/AFP)
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La Liga President Rejects Courtois’ Plea to Delay Real Madrid’s 25-26 Opener for More Rest Time

Thibaut Courtois #1 of Real Madrid C. F. reacts during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semifinal match between Winner Game 59 and Winner Game 60 at MetLife Stadium on July 09, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Getty Images/AFP)
Thibaut Courtois #1 of Real Madrid C. F. reacts during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 semifinal match between Winner Game 59 and Winner Game 60 at MetLife Stadium on July 09, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Getty Images/AFP)

Spanish league president Javier Tebas rejected Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' plea to postpone the team's 2025-26 opener to give players time to rest following the expanded Club World Cup.

Real Madrid was eliminated with a 4-0 semifinal loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday and will have a 41-day offseason before their La Liga opener against Osasuna on Aug. 19.

Tebas said the decision not to move the opener was made by the Spanish Football Federation and La Liga agreed with it. He said players were to have 21 days off and 21 days of preseason training.

"I believe that they will have 20 days to rest instead of 21 and no other leagues like the Premier League for Chelsea or the French Ligue 1 for PSG are changing the games," he said through a translator during a Friday interview with The Associated Press. "So I don’t believe that we should change the calendar for that reason, especially thinking that it’s a matter of one day."

Real Madrid played 68 competitive matches in a season that started Aug. 18: 38 in the league, 14 in the Champions League, six each in the Copa del Rey and the Club World Cup, two in the Spanish Super Cup and one apiece in the European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup.

PSG will play its 65th game in Sunday's Club World Cup final and Chelsea its 64th. PSG opens its season from Aug. 15-17 at Nantes and Chelsea starts against Crystal Palace on Aug. 17.

"It’s always the same for La Liga," Courtois said Wednesday. "To listen those comments from a president it’s something that I haven’t seen it in Italy, or in England, nor the NBA and NFL. It’s fine if Tebas doesn’t like the Club World Cup, but it exists. It’s part of the FIFA calendar. We’re here competing, and it seems this gentleman just wants to be the focus. I’ve never seen a president of another competition speak like that. The players' health is on the line."

On other topics:

Real Madrid causing problems Tebas said Real Madrid seeking its own path rather than working collectively with La Liga is his biggest problem.

"They don’t actually understand that we’re a huge league and that if we will collaborate it’s going to be positive for all of us," he said. "The believe in the Super League and in order to get a strong Super League they need a weak national league. So they are working toward that objective."

Camp Nou renovation Barcelona hopes to move back to Camp Nou after two seasons at the Olympic Stadium. Camp Nou's renovations are ongoing.

"They are waiting for a license that is provided by the city hall," Tebas said. "We believe that probably by the fourth week of the competition he should be ready to play again."

That would put the Blaugrana on track for a mid-September return to a venue that will remain under construction.

Barcelona is on track to meeting financial guidelines that would allow them to make moves in the transfer market.

"Barcelona’s financial situation is good," Tebas said. "They are close to acquiring all the players they want in the coming months."