JOSE DIVIDES OPINIONS AGAIN
I played a football game with some friends. My team had the best players and were the better team, anyway you looked at it. The other team was excellently superior and it was meant to be a walk over. Somehow the game didn’t go as planned; our passes were either too late or too early, we made wrong decisions and gave the ball away in silly areas. We conceded the first goal and I asked my team mates to calm down, trying to be positive, then we lost the ball again and gave away a cheap goal again, and I became furious. Before I knew it I was shouting at my team mates and the team mates were shouting at themselves. The game I thought was in the bag, suddenly began to sprint away from us….
Funny how you move from confidence to fear to cajoling and motivating, to shouting and then, if care is not taken, you go into resignation.
Every sport column and newspaper you look at have only one name in common the past few days, Jose Mourinho; it was the smiles initially, then he refused to blame his players, then criticism and anger. I have been there, so have you, if you’re reading this; maybe not in football, but with colleagues, children, mates, partners… you have been there, but this week however, Jose is back in the docks, again.
Jose sells newspapers, and his name keeps the fans in front of the screens. First there was the famous 12 minute rant, and then the post match comments after the Brighton game, so what is Jose up to?
Are there any truths to his discourse? Or is this just a smoke screen in a game of deception?
Will Jose’s recent attack have any effect on his team and champions league qualification next season ? Or will the straight talk just motivate the stars to prove Jose wrong?
Until I listened to the whole interview, I struggled to understand Jose’s point. But when you listen objectively, you’ll see Jose’s point clearly starring at you.
Have United been poor after Sir Alex?
Players that have left United thus far,have they gone to better teams and have they been sorely missed?
Has Jose being able to attract marquee names since his arrival?
Have United become a better team since he arrived?
Has he improved them this season?
Clearly yes.
Jose won the battle clearly but what about the war? The problem, is that, sometimes you’re better off just keeping quiet and losing the battle, in order to win the war. Can Jose win the war? ; Get United back to the top of the tree? Get his players to back his corner?
One war he will never win is the one with the press: the only Jose that sells newspaper is the negative, outdated, out punched, bitter and ridiculed Jose.
So when he wins against Chelsea and Liverpool but loses Sevilla, the highlight is the loss against Sevilla.
When players clearly under-perform (and I’ve been there as a player when it’s just not happening.. where I just had to dig in and put in a shift on days that brawl replaced flair) it’s Jose’s fault.
When other managers play defensive football (even almighty Barcelona parked the bus against Chelsea last week at Nou Camp- and Conte won the league at the back of deep lying defensive counter attacking football) it’s okay, but if Jose does same, they cry blue murder.
My advice? Jose manage your emotions, you always divide opinions and you won’t win over the press, fans or players who don’t believe in you in the first place.
Get back to work, and erm…. maybe play some more attacking football that would win you games as you did at Chelsea and even at Madrid.
MO SALAH THE EGYPTIAN KING SETTING ENGLAND ON FOOTBALL FIRE
What do you do as a 21yr old when you are rejected at one of the biggest clubs in one of the biggest leagues in the world?
Sulk? Cry? Give up? Accept you’re no good?
None of the above. Go away and prove everyone they were wrong.
That’s what Mohammed Salah did.
A star at Basel in Switzerland, he arrived Stamford Bridge with the wings of an eagle, but he soon realised that there were steps he would have to take, hurdles to cross and tees to dot to become who he always thought he would be.
Eden Hazard, Oscar, Schurrle, Didier Drogba, and others kept him out of the team and he had to accept that breaking into the first team of a fantastic team was not going to be a walk in the park and AS Roma rescued Mo Salah’s career from being crushed under the bridge.
Few years later however, Salah is back at the bridge and the stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner stone. 28 goals already and with several games to go, it’s looking like Salah is heading towards the 35 goal mark for Liverpool this season. What a reply!
People will say that Chelsea or Jose didn’t recognise the talent, of course they did or why would Jose sanction the purchase at the time?
There were just better players ahead of him at the time, and I’m sure there are some wonderful talents that Mo Salah is also keeping out of the Liverpool team at this time.
What helped him? Football games! Many football matches for AS Roma! Game time! This is the only way to get better and learn the game. No wonder he is a different player now.
This is a big lesson to many young players out there : if you’re at a big club and are not playing, check out; Wilfred Zaha, Harry Kane, Lukaku, Loftus-Cheek, Debruyne, Kennedy… they all left to play football.
Thank God Salah left, I Can’t wait to watch Liverpool engage City in the champions league games and can’t wait to view the end of season games yet to come. For now, it’s Mo Salah writing the headlines all over Merseyside