Throughout his career the flamboyant José Mourinho has made headlines, not least because he once dared to refer to himself as “a special one”.
Here was a successful football manager who appeared to revel in his celebrity, becoming more famous than many players.
So it was unsurprising that his departure from Chelsea should carry him yet again from the back to the front pages... with, needless to say, some “special” punning headlines and captions.
“Special gone”, said the Times. “Not so special” (Daily Telegraph). “The Special’s OFF” (Metro). “Sacked again. Now that is special” (The Independent). “Special one gone” (i).
Some papers claimed to know why he had gone, referring to the incident in August when Mourinho attacked the team doctor, Eva Carneiro, for going on to the pitch to treat a player.
“The woman who brought down The Special One”, said the Daily Mirror while the Daily Express asked: “Mourinho sacked, but did this woman trigger his downfall?” The Daily Star knew the answer, implying that Carneiro would be delighted: “Just what the doctor ordered”.
The Sun’s seasonal pun was rather weak and poor by its usual standards: “Away in a manager”. The Daily Mail headline was tacitly critical: “Man with God complex exits with £10m”.
The Guardian ran a piece by its senior sports writer, Barney Ronay, under the headline “Mourinho: gloriously overblown to the last”.
Even the Financial Times thought the story worthy of page one coverage: “Mourinho red-carded by Chelsea after ultimate winner acquires losing habit”.
And that was just the front pages. Naturally enough, there was massive coverage on the back pages and in the sports sections. There were fewer puns, though the Mirror, Sun and Express used variations of “stuffed”. And the Times, also nodding to the season, preferred an ironic “Merry Christmas, José”.
Most sports editors sought to explain why the manager was fired, with the Guardian, Independent Express referring to Mourinho having “lost the players”.
But the special one has not lost the newspapers. Editors will surely hope that he stays in Britain by finding a new post in the Premier League quite simply because he makes, love him or loathe him, great copy.
