Chelsea have a press conference scheduled for Friday, before their game at Manchester City on Sunday, and for once everybody is looking forward to it. With the possible exception of José Mourinho. It is not that the Chelsea manager’s public briefings are normally tedious or uncomfortable affairs, they just tend to be one-sided. Mourinho usually has the answers, can pick the questions he wishes to engage with and has the sort of achievement record that brooks little argument.
This time, as a result of his needless monstering of his own medical staff following two dropped points against Swansea on opening day, Mourinho can expect some pointed questioning indeed and he will have to supply some answers. He has not made any comment since the allegation on Saturday evening that Eva Carneiro needed to understand the game more, though subsequent developments within the club have seen a petty row escalate into something approaching a witch hunt.
Mourinho’s choice of words in the first place was poor bearing in mind the routinely sexist manner in which women in football tend to be treated by terrace supporters – she appears since to have been punished by the club for merely doing her job – and now he has the opportunity to explain himself further. Was Ms Carneiro supposed to realise, for instance, that Eden Hazard was not really injured and was just buying a little time at the end of a game? In which case might it not have been a good idea to include the club medical staff in what was evidently a ruse? Ought Hazard to be congratulated for feigning injury so convincingly it fooled both the referee and the club doctor? Was Mourinho aware the referee had signalled for the medic to go on to the pitch, and if so what would he rather have had her do instead of running on to attend to Hazard?
Shake her head and politely decline, on the grounds that she knew Hazard was milking it? Pretend she had not seen Michael Oliver’s signal? Is Mourinho even aware that referees, rather than medical staff, make decisions about when doctors can go on to the pitch?
Mourinho’s best policy when confronted with such a minefield may be to reinstate Carneiro to her matchday duties, sit her at the table next to him at the press conference, offer a profound apology and admit he got a few things wrong. If the Chelsea manager is big enough to accept a portion of blame for a public relations storm that blew up out of nothing the matter may be put swiftly to bed. That is not normally Mourinho’s style, however. He does not backtrack, fondly nurses grudges and is perfectly capable of making the situation worse rather than better when he meets journalists whose tone is confrontational.
That in itself may not worry Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea hierarchy, though Mourinho’s colourful history of falling out with his employers could do. Chelsea have a big game at the weekend, a meeting that even at this stage of the season could reasonably be billed as a pointer for the title, and City started their season with impressive smoothness with a 3-0 win at West Brom which earned praise from most pundits. Chelsea did not need the distraction of an internal squabble in the first week of the season, and Mourinho and his players are now under a certain amount of pressure to show on Sunday that discord has not spread through the playing ranks.
Manuel Pellegrini, widely characterised last season as a dead man walking, now has an extended contract in his pocket, a win under his belt and is under no pressure at all. It is Mourinho, who looked so rock solid and secure over summer, who suddenly has a ship to steady and he has no one to blame but himself.
Mourinho recently signed a new four-year contract and committed himself to Stamford Bridge for the foreseeable future, yet the fact remains he has yet so stay longer than three years at any of his clubs. Success normally follows him around but so do arguments and controversies.
Manchester United pointed that out when Mourinho was under consideration as a successor to Sir Alex Ferguson. They apparently formed the view that his confrontationalist, publicity-courting style was at odds with the club’s image and ethos, and he would probably be wanting out after three years anyway, whereas Old Trafford required a long-term commitment.
That went by the board in the end, Louis van Gaal will not be sticking around for ever and in terms of short-term solutions United arguably went for the wrong super-coach, though already it is possible to see how Mourinho’s time at his latest club may end. Chelsea will be as accommodating as they possibly can, though they have been reminded once again that their manager carries round his own personal button marked self-combust, if not yet self-destruct. Mourinho could, as the saying goes, cause trouble in an empty house.
