Mourinho, we were waiting for you
BarcelonaWatching José Mourinho's press conferences is hypnotic. You might think I'm a masochist, but it's a spectacle that draws me in. During the first months of this second stint in Madrid, it seemed like he wasn't the same as before. But in recent days, he has returned. The years go by and he remains in shape. When he raises his voice, his press conferences are both comic and tragic at the same time. Commedia dell'arte Portuguese style.
After his epic triumph in Rome, Mourinho took flight. A press conference for gourmets in which he got a bit tangled up with a Portuguese idiom about a cat hiding its tail. He was surely referring to "A cat hiding its tail", a saying used to mock someone who tries to do something secretly but leaves clues. He started talking about the cat conspiring against Madrid, indignant because Vinícius Júnior had discovered he would be suspended for four matches in the League while he was on the bus taking them to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. In his mind, someone at the referee committee in Madrid was waiting for the exact moment to issue the statement. They kept waiting until the moment on the bus, because according to Mourinho-esque logic, they wanted to unsettle the player.
Afterwards, he complained about the match schedules. Another classic from his repertoire. October has arrived, and Mourinho has arrived. We were waiting for you. The usual Mou. The one who one day refuses to speak in a press conference and a few days later revels in it. The one who considers that everyone is against his team, the king of conspiracy theories. Fans of other teams watch it with our mouths open, half surprised and half amused, as they are theories that do not hold up anywhere. It is like watching those who believe the Earth is flat. You listen to them fascinated and surprised. But watch out: there are always those who believe him.
Mourinho has been doing this his whole life. He did it at Porto, at Chelsea, and at Inter. It is about creating theories in which referees, politicians, federations, and rivals conspire against you. From the outside, it seems ridiculous, but many times it works for him. In a divided club like Madrid, where for the first time in years there is opposition, it can serve him well. In a broken locker room like his, it can serve him well. Uniting your own by creating external enemies. He really needs it, since his Madrid does not play well. In Rome, they saved the match who knows how, while Mbappé does his own thing and Vinícius loses his way. Mourinho has recovered the old recipe of external enemies to hide that, on the inside, Madrid is very fragile.
