Mails: Jose’s is the story of a charmless man

Ian Watson

Don’t pretend you’ve got anything better to do this weekend – send your mails to theeditor@football365.com

Sick of Mourinho
Years ago a young enigmatic manager rolled up at Chelsea, full of smiles and wit, where did he go? I understand the pressure of of being the manager of one the worlds biggest clubs and trying to replicate what old whiskey nose did but he is or has turned into the most boring, whinger of all time. Gone are the days you would look forward to his interviews, gone has the smile and the wit, it’s now a case of listening to absolute rubbish that streams from his blinkered face,.

His utter contempt for the FA, the Premier League and now UEFA and the Europa League is nothing short of bringing the game into disrepute. He slates his own players for not giving enough then defends one for a headbutt and blames the opposing player, he sees games where they have been dominated as ‘we were not troubled’ and watches a totally different game to all of us.

His latest rant regarding Liverpool playing 18 games less is unfair, he has arguably the biggest squad in Europe, they have spent over £500m in the last 3 years on recruitment, have the biggest turnover in world football and yet it’s unfair? really?

He is now the manager of arguably the world’s biggest club and again, arguably the world’s most loathed club, he is on a very slippery slope to becoming the world’s most loathed manager.

Will the real Jose Mourinho please stand up.
Nick Chetwyn, Derby

 

Remembering Jose’s Class of 2004
Guy S states that Mourinho has never made enough of the attacking potential of his side. I’d argue 2004 with Robben, Duff, Drogba achieved everything they wanted to in attack. They scored 72 league goals (1.9 per game) which is definitely in the ‘good’ category but below ‘spectacular’.

What’s more impressive is that team only conceded 15 goals all league season. 15! That’s less than 0.5 per game. Outscoring their opponents by more than 4:1 is an amazing feat.

Goodness me Makalele, Terry, Carvalho, Gallas, Cech made a good defence. That gave the attackers the freedom to score those goals. Hopefully he’s doing the same thing at Man Utd.
Calum (Anyone who can make Rojo play well is a genius manager), MUFC, Wokingham

 

A plea for perspective
I emailed in for some months now, I prefer to sit and laugh at the absolute garbage that some people spout within this mailbox than challenge, but I was forced to change my stance today with some of the idiotic points put forward.

Tony Bii – I’m not sure how watching Man United is becoming more and more difficult each day. I’m seeing a team developing towards the latter end of the season with some quality youngsters thrown into the mix. United are not the finished article but with a few minor tweaks and a couple of quality additions we can be a force next season. I’ve also witnessed us demolish the likely champions and force our way through to the Europa League final all by the boot of one of the most impressive youngsters I’ve ever seen. If it’s difficult to watch I suggest you go and watch Barcelona or Real who seems to score 5+ goals a game and regularly turn their opponent over.

Ted – none of your points were idiotic, I thought I’d just point out that Fosu-Mensah injured himself with the last kick of the game, unfortunately.

Dr Awachie – Martial has a poor game so he is lambasted for being unfit and bereft of ideas, yet you highlight his impressive performance in the previous game. I assume he was also unfit in that game as well? Contradictory is an understatement.

Zvdrako – “Rashford needs to improve”. LOL. I had a good old chuckle when I read that. Does he really? I guess a sublime goal against anderlecht and taking apart the champions elect has been forgotten rather quickly in your household? A fine talent who needs time to develop his game over the next few years is my opinion, but if you’re after a hat trick every week the poor lad can’t win can he.

I always find it amazing that after one drab game the armchair fans come out in force and demolish Mourinho and the players. Let’s have a little more perspective please and stop the overreacting at every draw or loss. The transition is almost complete and I fully believe that United will be back amongst the challengers next season, along with City.
Leon, Basel.

 

Reasons for optimism
Yes, we played turgid, defensive football in the derby. However:

– We got a point at the Etihad despite lacking Zlatan, Rojo, Mata, Smalling, Pogba and Jones.
– We have only conceded one goal in our last six Premier League games, despite permanent defensive crisis.
– We are one point behind a City team that everyone seems to think is God’s gift, despite playing 8 matches this month(!).
– We have won a cup and are in another semi-final.
– Jose knows what he needs to do this summer, and will get the necessary backing.
– Fellaini can’t play for 3 games.

So overall I’m very happy indeed.
RQT (MUFC)

 

Fellaini v Aguero
Dave, Ireland, “surely Aguero’s reaction is worse”. I’ll remember that if somebody punches me in the face, going down or complaining makes me worse than the person who punched me.

Nice one Dave, thanks for taking us back a few hundred years.
Daniel, London

 

BBC WM OK
Inspired by John Nicholson’s article on TalkSport I felt I had to mention the brilliant football coverage provided by BBC WM. The West Midlands though frequently overlooked is small and passionate footballing area. With 5 professional teams WBA, Villa, Wolves, Birmingham City and Walsall.

Football fans in the West Midlands are spoilt by our local BBC radio station. Paul Franks leads the way. Also the drive time host his weekday work begins at 4. Then at 5:30 every night of the week he hosts a football phone in usually alongside some former West Midlands footballer like Richard Sneekes, Martin O Connor, Peter Whithe, Tony Brown or Gary Thompson. On a Friday he hosts it with Head Of Sport Mark Regan. There are no adverts just efficient news, traffic and travel bulletins.

Unlike other stations BBCWM trusts its listeners. A call will usually be between 3-5 minutes and a caller will get to speak for most of the time and lead the conversation. So accessible is it that some callers are now famous like Eddie the Albion fan who is 79 and dislikes Pulis or Polly the Blue nose who loves her beautiful boys, Charles Ross the worlds poshest Wolves fan or Alan the deliberately obnoxious Villa fan.

Paul Franks has created a community for football fans on the radio and it is really worth a listen even if your not from the area using the BBC WM website. So respected had it become that Tony Pulis appeared on it a couple of months ago and took none vetted questions for an hour and a half.

Their match day coverage is excellent and again offers plenty of opportunity for the fans to genuinely have a say. All clubs are treated equally. Please do go and have a listen it’s how football radio should be done.
Ben The Baggie

 

Corner corner
Ed Quoththeraven asked how much players actually gain by placing the ball at the outer extreme of the corner quandrants.

Given that the line is always in the same place, the grass there is permanently lower than the grass around it. If you put it on the line it would be down in a slight dip; putting it on the outside edge of the line basically tees the ball up a bit and allows a cleaner connection with the ball.

You could, obviously, get exactly the same effect by putting it at the back, inside the quadrant, which would be higher than the touchline. But no, because professional footballer.
Wilson “Mr Tee” Beuys