The Catalan press don’t like José Mourinho, and they’ve got some pretty decent reasons to feel that way, but sometimes, just sometimes, their dislike for the man borders on petty, and you feel like they’re just waiting for any excuse to have a dig at him.
Wednesday’s opinion piece by Toni Frieros in Sport, for example, is one of them.
On Sunday, both Manchester City and Manchester United pulled off impressive wins, yet instead of just accepting that, a page long article had to be written about their styles of football, because, as football fans, we can’t see for ourselves that Pep Guardiola’s side play more expansive and entertaining football than José Mourinho’s.
No. It has to be rammed down our throats.
To start this all off, Frieros hands us a just about bearable dose of how great Pep Guardiola is, as well as the compulsory mention of Johan Cruyff.
After all, the Spaniard deserves praise, winning the Carabao Cup in style against a – what did Gary Neville call them? Ah yes! – ‘pathetic’ Arsenal side, and that should be what the article is about.
Yet this almost pleasurable (for them) need to bring Mourinho into the conversation, a bit like the constant comparisons between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo by their respective fans, never disappears.
But before we get to that, it’s worth pointing out that Frieros seems to believe Manchester City should be praised even more for what they’ve done because (he says) they are on a level playing field financially to Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool.
How do they manage to have this success? “Because they know how to do things right, which is invest adequately in a type of player that fits a philosophy”.
Of course, as soon as the word ‘philosophy’ was used, it set up the perfect cue to start mentioning Mourinho because ‘what is the Portuguese’s style of play?’.
In fact, ‘is it worth spending €180m in transfers to end up with this type of football?’, fielding a ‘cowardly XI, like a cat on his back with his belly in the air, without personality’ like he did against Sevilla.
Then comes the inevitable trophy comparison, borderline pushing the idea that Pep Guardiola’s trophy winning is more impressive because he didn’t do so by playing ‘boring football, without any type of appeal’.
And if that wasn’t enough for one article, here comes the grande finale: guess which one is which?
Frieros writes: “They both have the same means. Each one has converted them in a different way. On the pitch, their style of play reflects their personality. One is valiant, direct and creative. The other is defensive, hard and contemplative. One invests majorly in talent. The other in muscle”.
It’s a tricky one.
