Mou is shopping for a new house. Downton Abbey? He’s 35th from the left.
Jose Mourinho has been spotted in London and it is driving everyone potty. He’s supposedly buying a house. Which means only four things. He’s going to manage England, Chelsea, Spurs, and Arsenal. Or maybe, just maybe he’s a huge fan of Downton Abbey and wants to take it off the hands of the Earl of Grantham. No one thought of that one, eh?
How about another alternative? Mou is a master of mind games. Everyone knows that the first leg of the Copa Del Rey was an utter farce which got to even the most hardened Real Madrid fan. It was as if some malevolent force had mutated the spirit of Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento, Ferenc Puskas, and Pirri and channeled it into the corporeal body of Pepe who then embarked on his journey of mayhem like Klaus Kinski in Cobra Verde.
The Madrid media piled on, players like Ramos and Casillas staged a three ringed circus in which Mou was tossed off the bridge. And horrors, all this came tumbling out in a Marca front page. Following that huge leak, Mou threw a hissy fit at Ramon Calderon, er, sorry, Florentino Perez. The Real Madrid president recalibrating things in favour of his manager promised to fly down the Iron Curtain on the Santiago Bernabeu.
Right after that London tabloids quoted unnamed sources close to Mou giving the lowdown about the Real Madrid manager being sick to his stomach about the way things were unraveling at Real and raging at how little control he had. It got everyone atwitter. He’s going to leave, break his contract, some salivating club will pick up his €20m tab for the most desired coach in the world. Love in the time of Financial Fair Play Rules. Now, we have Mou traveling to London and shopping ostensibly for a house.
Colour me cynical but if you ever want to get people off your back and emasculate them of power, this is exactly what you would do. Real’s problem is they have met someone equally as ruthless as them. The hatchet jobs they did on Vicente del Bosque, Fabio Capello, and Bernd Schuster is legendary. Now, Real will be forced to re-negotiate, the Madrid media brought to heel, with Ramos and Casillas isolated. Madrid’s hubris with Del Bosque has haunted them ever since. This is Mou’s punch in their solar plexus to remind them he’s their best bet to get them back the glory they crave. Leave him be.
Sid Lowe talks about Mou being a collector and securing the Liga and possibly the CL as a culmination of his time at Real and possibly a signal for him to move. Fair enough. But Mou also took the job to inflict humiliation on Barca in Spain which has so far been all on the Catalonian side. Revenge motivates him as much as trophies. So far, he’s been second best to Pep Guardiola. He will stay on to see if this comes to fruition. The Premiership will have to wait.