Mediawatch: Mourinho telling fibs about playing the kids
It’s just emotion taking me over
‘Jose Mourinho CRIED when Wayne Rooney left Manchester United: I miss him a lot’ reads the headline on top of the Daily Express website on Wednesday morning, and it is one that made Mediawatch frown. ‘JOSE MOURINHO has revealed he shed tears when Wayne Rooney left Manchester United,’ was their opening paragraph.
Had the Express heard different Mourinho quotes to the ones Mediawatch read? That would be weird given that they boast that Pete Edwards is ‘in Washington’ with the team.
No, they hadn’t. Edwards had heard these quotes:
“He deserves what he got and what he got was our desire for him to stay and our respect by making it completely clear that we would like him to stay.
“I miss him a lot because he’s a fantastic guy. I’m not the kind of guy that normally gets emotional in my job but I did it with him when he left.
“I am sure that he’s going to be very, very good for Everton and Everton is going to be very very good for him.”
Quick point, Pete: ‘Emotional’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘CRIED’. Even when you’re putting it capital letters to make a clicky headline.
The kids are alright
Jose Mourinho wants you to know that he does not have a problem with developing youth players. He produced a list of 49 players when he was unveiled as Manchester United manager, and on Tuesday evening he repeated his claim:
“The reputation is the reputation. But the other day I found myself in the tunnel before the Real Madrid game and I’m not talking about the second half because they were kids who were 15 or 16 during my time there.
“But in the first half, more than half the Real team – which was their first-team, because they were only missing Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos – all these guys started with me and had debuts with me.”
The thing is, Jose, we can check up on facts like that. And you’re talking guff.
Of the 11 players who started for Real Madrid against Manchester United, only three were given their Real Madrid first-team debuts during Mourinho’s time at the club. Those three were Luka Modric (bought for £30m), Raphael Varane (bought for £8m) and Nacho. We’ll give you Nacho.
Mourinho continued:
“They came into the first-team with me, they trained with me when they were 15 and 16-years-old – Nacho, Casemiro, Carvajal, Marcelo, who was 22. Almost all of them.”
Ah yes, Dani Carvajal, the right-back who Mourinho sold to Bayer Leverkusen without giving him a single first-team appearance. And Marcelo, who had already started 83 La Liga games before Mourinho arrived. And Casemiro, who Mourinho loaned in from Sao Paolo, played once and then relegated to the B team before he left the club that summer.
“Almost all of them.”
Baleout
You may remember that Jose Mourinho recently spoke about why Manchester United did not target Gareth Bale this summer. Here is what he said, as reported by The Sun:
“No, because you have contacts, you have feelings, you understand things, I think it was clear that Bale likes Madrid, likes the challenge, likes the situation. He’s in a club that’s in a very good situation now. I never felt a desire from him to leave, so why lose time and energy on that? No.”
There’s a reason Mediawatch has used The Sun’s story on Manchester United’s lack of interest in Bale, because by Wednesday they have a United transfer story.
‘JOSE MOURINHO admitted he was looking for an attacking wide player when quizzed about Gareth Bale,’ the piece begins.
And what is the URL to that piece? ‘Gareth-bale-manchester-united-jose-mourinho’, of course.
And what is the picture on their football homepage to accompany the story about Manchester United ‘targeting a winger’? It’s Mourinho and Bale side-by-side, of course.
Short-term memory loss is a handy flaw when you’re trying to drive web traffic.
Warning sign
‘You won’t walk into this side,’ reads the Daily Mirror’s headline on an interview with Manchester City’s new signing Danilo. It is sold as a pointed message to Kyle Walker.
By the time the story hits the website, the headline is stronger still: ‘Manchester City’s Danilo out to make fellow new boy Kyle Walker a £52million substitute.’
‘Danilo has warned new team-mate Kyle Walker that he faces a battle for the right-back slot at Manchester City,’ writes David McDonnell in both versions.
So, what did Danilo say?
“I see that this team is a great team, with great professionals and a great coach, so I expect it will be a very good challenge. I’m going to try my best to adapt as soon as possible. I see the potential in this side, so I shall do my best.
“All these big teams have very skilful players. Real Madrid had the best players, but I’m very motivated for this challenge. It wasn’t a difficult decision to choose City over Chelsea. The moment Pep called me, I knew what I had to do. It was very fast. I was training with Real Madrid, Pep called me and I was very motivated to make this change and start to work with him.”
“Yes, Real did try to persuade me to stay, but I was sure I needed to change. I needed to find a place where I had more options. In all the teams I have played for, the objective has always been to be winners. And I have no doubt we can win the Champions League – that’s why I chose this team.”
Mentions of battling for a first-team place: 0
Mentions of Kyle Walker: 0
Warnings: 0 (and that’s an emphatic 0)
What’s the story, warning glory
It’s a good day for pathetic warnings, because the Metro have passed on the message that Inter Milan have sent a ‘warning’ to Manchester United over Ivan Perisic.
So, what has Luciano Spalletti said?
“Sure there are rumours but we want to keep Perisic, he’s a very important player for the team, We are counting on him to start the new season.
“But if somebody comes in with a very difficult offer to reject then we will consider that, but of course we need to find a valid alternative for Perisic as well.”
‘We might sell him’. Truly chilling.
Nonsense comparison
Shout out to The Sun for bothering to calculate that Kylian Mbappe’s potential £161m transfer fee could pay for 3,026,315 average family weekly food shops, as if that actually means anything.
All together now: GIVE AVERAGE FAMILIES FOOTBALLERS’ TRANSFER FEES.
The latest in a neverending series
‘The Special Blond’ – Daily Mail.
Jose Mourinho’s hair ‘is a lovely golden colour’, you see. It really isn’t.
‘Revealed’
‘What Chelsea want to call their new stadium revealed’ – Metro.
Scan down a few inches to read:
‘The Times report that the preferred formula would be: The X Stadium at Stamford Bridge.’
Pretty sure the ‘X’ part of that is crucial to actually revealing the name.
Ballsy opinion piece of the day
‘Jose Mourinho should give up on Ivan Perisic and bring Angel Di Maria back to Man Utd’ – Jack Oatway, Daily Express.
Yes, who better than a former player who effectively downed tools in England, never really wanted to be there and engineered the move to Paris St Germain he wanted in the first place.
Recommended reading of the day
Melissa Reddy with Jurgen Klopp.
Louise Taylor with Lucy Bronze.
Matt Stanger on the changing face of football fandom.