Now that all the transfer window fun has died down and the furore from a sensational set of weekend fixtures has subsided, we are left with what could well be called a slow news day. Luckily for the Premier League José Mourinho has returned from sunny Spain, meaning that there is no such thing as a slow news day anymore. This week, José takes aim at Manuel Pellegrini and the FA.
The Chelsea manager’s rivalry with Pellegrini has been well documented since Mourinho replaced Pellegrini at Real Madrid. The two have faced off 9 times with Pellegrini winning just once. But this week the battle has been fought away from the football field.
It is the battle for moral superiority fought in their respective press conferences as each argues that it is the other who has ‘bought’ success. The stats for this season show Man City with a gross transfer spend of £78.65million while Chelsea’s was just £49.5million. 1-0 to José you would imagine. Although I’m sure that he isn’t naïve enough to claim that Chelsea’s spend isn’t excessive.
But that wasn’t really what it was about, it was about Mourinho getting (yet another) one over on his rival. When Pellegrini spelt out Mourinho’s spending at Chelsea earlier this week and accused the Stamford Bridge club of big spending in January, José was quick to rally back, calling into question the Man City manager's knowledge of his transfer dealings and even his maths:
"Pellegrini is a fantastic coach and, on top of that, he's an engineer by qualification. I don't think an engineer needs a calculator to do Mata £37m and De Bruyne £18m, so that's £55m. Matić is £21m and Salah is £11m. That's £32m, and 55 minus 32 is 23. So Chelsea, in this transfer window, generated £23m. It's easy to understand that this is working with fair financial fair play. We are building a team for the next decade. City have a team to win now: experience, potential, power, not worried about FFP because, in the summer, they just spend ... We don't need a calculator for this. It's easy: +23."
Another talking point for José this week was the decision to not retrospectively ban City’s Yaya Touré for his kick at Norwich City’s Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Of course it wasn’t just a talking point, it was another opportunity for Mourinho to put the boot into his title rivals. But Mourinho knew that he had a fair point to make and that it would be directed at the FA.
It has long been suggested that the so called bigger clubs often get the rub of the green when it comes to refereeing decisions. Touré of Man City got off scot-free for kicking van Wolfswinkel. With this decision coming on the very same day that Craig Bellamy of Cardiff City was charged with violent conduct for a similar incident in his sides game with Swansea this weekend.
And all of this comes after West Ham’s Andy Carroll had his controversial red card against the Swans upheld. It certainly seemed that the smaller clubs were stepped on by the FA in this latest batch of decisions.
One thing that José really objected to was the idea that a message had been sent by the FA in allowing Touré to escape punishment:
“Of course I would be disappointed if he is not punished. If he is not, it has to be the same for everyone: if the referee doesn’t see, a player can do whatever he wants. It doesn’t matter about cameras or others seeing, I can do whatever I want. If they make the rule that action can be taken if a referee has missed something, they have to apply that rule.”
Players are now allowed to do what they want, that’s the FA’s message according to José . We all know that his tune may change if one of his players manages to escape a sanction for their own infringement but for now this stance suits Mourinho down to the ground. More pressure put on his title rivals, more sympathetic eyes cast on his team. The man truly is a master of mind games, with Sir Alex no longer in the picture there is no one that can touch the Portuguese.
Good job too, with the Premier League title race as close as it is, Chelsea (and their rivals for that matter) will need every edge they can get.
Good job for me too to be frank with you. Without José there was borderline nothing to write about this week.