He also bought widely at RM. No real OTT type spendings.
Mourinho | New old Chelsea manager
- Thread starter Suedesi
- Start date
Obviously fishing for the United job
Obviously fishing for the United job
Liverpool surely ?
They are the ones deprived of success for few decades.
I just dig the dude's guts
He is the one, the only replacement for Sir Alex I'd be happy with.
Spoony meets Mourinho radio Five Live Monday 7.00pm.
Why the hell is "Spoony" getting these big interviews? The guy is such a cretin.
Not bad for a pirate DJ
No but it's pretty bad for the BBC.
Mourinho at Liverpool would be very very interesting
No, it wouldn't.
I personally think JM will come here in 2-3 years, and Pep will go to arsenal or chelsea and their head-to-head battle will continue this time in the premiership
He is the "only one"
If by interesting you mean a disaster (for United), I agree.
i hope he will not or never return to england, unless he is managing us one day. this guy wins almost everything.
This will never happen, because Liverpool don't have unlimited budget for him, so he wouldn't want to join them, and even if he does, then he won't make a difference.
The club that fits Mourinho the most in the Premier League at the moment is City, but Mancini was quicker, and he's already done "a Mourinho" there.
If he could be as positive in general as he was vs Barca I'd welcome him as SAF's successor.
The only reason Jose goes to big clubs with 'unlimited' budgets is because he is at the very top. Ferguson is rightly considered the goat by many, including me, a Chelsea fan though I am not so mythical when talking about ferguson which is kinda understandable from a united fans view. But to be honest I think when Jose retires he will be widely regarded as the best ever. The man is indeed a very special manager.
Mancini needs to stay in his job until Fergie retires. For obvious reasons.
AS have posted the English translation of his latest interview, covering sugar daddy clubs, FFP, their CL group and Barcelona among other things.
http://www.as.com/english/articulo/i-chose-madrid-precisely-because/20120906dasdenspo_2/Ten
"I chose Madrid precisely because I wanted to compete with Barça"
Mourinho goes over the current issues at Madrid with AS. In this first part he talks about FIFA's Financial Fair Play, the Champions League, Barcelona, the Cristiano case and the Prince of Asturias award. Tomorrow there'll be more on Modric, Kaká, the Liga, the referees, national teams...
How are clubs like Madrid and Barcelona, whose ownership is divided between thousands of members, going to compete with the rise of teams sponsored by Russian millionaires or Arab sheikhs who can invest without limits? Will they be able to keep their stars?
Madrd, Barça, Bayern... these clubs have a unique element, which is their historic value. That can't be bought with money. Titles, European Cups, the development, the history, the fans: money isn't the answer for these things. And the best players want to be at these teams, at these three that I've mentioned and at some others that have had full trophy cabinets for a long, long time. This is still a determining factor for the players.
You also have to take into account that changes to FIFA's Financial Fair Play regulations are just around the corner. And Platini says he's going to be strict about them. They'll put restrictions in place and the problems will be for the clubs that aren't well-structured, even though they might have the coffers full of money. Talking about Madrid, which is my club and which I know, the structures are prepared for this, and we'll be fine in this next chapter. Real Madrid has the potential and the history to hold on to the best - to players like Cristiano, Casillas, Benzema, Higuaín. Like everyone in our squad. Barça, the same. But the clubs that live solely off the investments of their owners won't have it so easy, because they'll meet difficulties not being structured like the historic ones. The Financial Fair Play regulations will be good for football.
In all top-level clubs there are three types of players: the world top-tens, those from the level in the middle, and those from the lower level. Not all teams can have 11 players from the highest group, but perhaps the amount of middle-level players at clubs structured like Madrid or Barça give them the ability to compete with the Russians, with the sheikhs. Will the real problem be there?
It could be, I don't know. At the moment the market is changing a lot. It's convulsing. For example, this very week Russia's Zenit signed Huly and Witsel for 100 million euros. And they took them from under the nose of two of the historic teams in Portuguese and continental football, Porto and Benfica. They're the kinds of players that we'd all have expected to see in top Champions League tams soon, but they've ended up in Russia. Money will keep its importance for football players, but yes, mainly for that 'middle-class'. Because if you earn 5 millioneuros a year you're not going to go if they offer you five-and-a-half. But a person who earns 12 million euros a year, and they offer him the chance to earn 40; well, it's sure he'll change his team. It's logical, because it changes their lives. But that follows the amounts. For the amounts that the big stars earn it's not like that. In the case of Hulk and Witsel, of the two best players in the Portuguese league, will see similar things in the coming years. But signing a big star from a historic club and champion won't be so easy. It's a new reality to which we have to adapt.
Your Champions League group is made up of four teams that have won their respective leagues. Can you give a quick overview of the opponents: Manchester City, Dortmund and Ajax?
Yes, yes. It's true. And they're not simply four league champions, but three of the four are champions of the three top leagues in Europe: La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. It seems to me that the 'Calcio' (Italian football) is suffering, and that only Juventus could keep up with the teams there are in Madrid's group. France is growing, but it's still not at that level. It's a really tough group, that's clear. And to finish it off you have Ajax, who are in perpetual reconstruction but always offer new and interesting players, people that want to make a name for themselves and will put up a fight. Ajax have also won things, and they have that with their shirt even though it's young players defending it.
Last week in Montecarlo someone said that Madrid's group in the Champions League is the group of death. Ruud Gullit sums it up for me very well: "It's a group that doesn't allow for mistakes, not even the smallest error..."
I totally agree with Gullit. The difference between our group and the rest is that Madrid can't allow themselves a single oversight. Neither can our opponents: City, Dortmund and Ajax. There's also another thing to keep in mind: the two teams that go through from our group won't come into the knock-out stages of the competition in the same condition as the other 14 that qualify. Let me explain. We'll have to be playing at our top level from the first minute and in all of the matches in the group stage. With the maximum intensity, concentration, delivery, pressure. We'll get to the quarter-finals with this effort in our legs and in our heads. The others will arrive fresher, without cards and suspensions, keeping controls on minutes played, making rotations... With many advantages that Real Madrid, Manchester City, Dortmund and Ajax won't have. We come into the quarter-finals with accumulated effort, probably with cards, with many minutes played at full throttle, and with physical and mental fatigue.
It's not going to be a walk in the park this group phase, is it?
Easy it won't be. But knowing my team, my players, I also have to say sincerely that preparing for matches of this intensity is easier for me and the team than doing it for others. I rest easy knowing that Real Madrid has developed an enormous competitive streak. And I don't have to say more to the team. They already know that they have to be at their best and give it all in the Champions League. That playing well, better or OK they have to move the matches forward. Winning from the first minute of the first game, against Manchester City at the Bernabéu.
Will Manchester City be the big team to beat?
Well I'm not so sure. Dortmund are double winners in Germany, they're a finely-tuned team and they're full of internationals, many from Germany and the two best Polish players. They've already built up a lot of experience in the Champions League, they have an impressive stadium and fans that will support them to the last. And with Ajax you never know, but they can cause you an upset. And as there's no margin for error... But yes, Manchester City are really powerful because of money, and world-class football players. City are a team made to win the Champions League, put together with this intention. The investment that goes in year after year has the goal of winning the European Cup. And it's going to be hard. Hard for Real Madrid, and hard for them because Madrid is Madrid.
Madrid have managed to sink Barça twice in the last six months. Is this the start of a new chapter?
It's not me who should say that. What's evident is that we've broken Barça's winning streak, that brought them one title after the next. Now the alternation has come back, and we'll see who wins this battle. Anyway, we have to be honest: we're speaking about Real Madrid and Barcelona, two very good teams, excellent teams. Any other team you could pick in the world, if they had to play in the Liga, wouldn't finish first or second. And I chose Real Madrid precisely because of that. Because it's more difficult to be here. If you go to another league it's easier to win. With any other direct rival that's not Barça, and in terms of the whole league, everything would be easier.
I'll also say that Barça are part of the reason why Madrid got to where they got last season; they set the bar really, really high. To be champions we had to go to a different dimension, and that's why the last Liga is such an honour. But the battle isn't over. The cycle of constant wins for Barcelona may have finished. But the cycle of high quality from both these teams hasn't. The struggle will go on. And football fans, not only in Spain but around the world, are going to enjoy the Madrid-Barça matches to come. Madrid-Barça is a blessing for football, for football fans. I don't have the numbers, but I'm sure that the recent Supercopa had a bigger global audience than many matches in the last Champions League.
In your dual role as coach and manager, can you find a solution to the case of Cristiano? If you believe there to be such a case.
Let me think a few minutes...
Are you ready?
Yes, but it's a topic I shouldn't and I can't speak about.
Why's that?
I'm not going to say anything about that.
Are you not answering because you prefer to speak about it to Cristiano first, face to face?
Excuse me, this interview seems interesting to me. I'm willing to speak about everything. I've answered all your questions in depth and honestly. But don't ask me about the thing with Cristiano. You have to uunderstand me. I ask you, please do not insist.
Finally, what does José Mourinho think of Casillas and Xavi winning the Prince of Asturias award?
It was some of the good news of the day. Let me use the opportunity to congratulate them both in the pages of AS. To Iker, our captain, the captain of Madrid and Spain and the international with the most appearances for Spain, I send a strong and heartfelt embrace, and I congratulate him. To Xavi, also my sincerest congratulations.
http://www.as.com/english/articulo/i-chose-madrid-precisely-because/20120906dasdenspo_2/Ten
"I chose Madrid precisely because I wanted to compete with Barça"
Mourinho goes over the current issues at Madrid with AS. In this first part he talks about FIFA's Financial Fair Play, the Champions League, Barcelona, the Cristiano case and the Prince of Asturias award. Tomorrow there'll be more on Modric, Kaká, the Liga, the referees, national teams...
How are clubs like Madrid and Barcelona, whose ownership is divided between thousands of members, going to compete with the rise of teams sponsored by Russian millionaires or Arab sheikhs who can invest without limits? Will they be able to keep their stars?
Madrd, Barça, Bayern... these clubs have a unique element, which is their historic value. That can't be bought with money. Titles, European Cups, the development, the history, the fans: money isn't the answer for these things. And the best players want to be at these teams, at these three that I've mentioned and at some others that have had full trophy cabinets for a long, long time. This is still a determining factor for the players.
You also have to take into account that changes to FIFA's Financial Fair Play regulations are just around the corner. And Platini says he's going to be strict about them. They'll put restrictions in place and the problems will be for the clubs that aren't well-structured, even though they might have the coffers full of money. Talking about Madrid, which is my club and which I know, the structures are prepared for this, and we'll be fine in this next chapter. Real Madrid has the potential and the history to hold on to the best - to players like Cristiano, Casillas, Benzema, Higuaín. Like everyone in our squad. Barça, the same. But the clubs that live solely off the investments of their owners won't have it so easy, because they'll meet difficulties not being structured like the historic ones. The Financial Fair Play regulations will be good for football.
In all top-level clubs there are three types of players: the world top-tens, those from the level in the middle, and those from the lower level. Not all teams can have 11 players from the highest group, but perhaps the amount of middle-level players at clubs structured like Madrid or Barça give them the ability to compete with the Russians, with the sheikhs. Will the real problem be there?
It could be, I don't know. At the moment the market is changing a lot. It's convulsing. For example, this very week Russia's Zenit signed Huly and Witsel for 100 million euros. And they took them from under the nose of two of the historic teams in Portuguese and continental football, Porto and Benfica. They're the kinds of players that we'd all have expected to see in top Champions League tams soon, but they've ended up in Russia. Money will keep its importance for football players, but yes, mainly for that 'middle-class'. Because if you earn 5 millioneuros a year you're not going to go if they offer you five-and-a-half. But a person who earns 12 million euros a year, and they offer him the chance to earn 40; well, it's sure he'll change his team. It's logical, because it changes their lives. But that follows the amounts. For the amounts that the big stars earn it's not like that. In the case of Hulk and Witsel, of the two best players in the Portuguese league, will see similar things in the coming years. But signing a big star from a historic club and champion won't be so easy. It's a new reality to which we have to adapt.
Your Champions League group is made up of four teams that have won their respective leagues. Can you give a quick overview of the opponents: Manchester City, Dortmund and Ajax?
Yes, yes. It's true. And they're not simply four league champions, but three of the four are champions of the three top leagues in Europe: La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. It seems to me that the 'Calcio' (Italian football) is suffering, and that only Juventus could keep up with the teams there are in Madrid's group. France is growing, but it's still not at that level. It's a really tough group, that's clear. And to finish it off you have Ajax, who are in perpetual reconstruction but always offer new and interesting players, people that want to make a name for themselves and will put up a fight. Ajax have also won things, and they have that with their shirt even though it's young players defending it.
Last week in Montecarlo someone said that Madrid's group in the Champions League is the group of death. Ruud Gullit sums it up for me very well: "It's a group that doesn't allow for mistakes, not even the smallest error..."
I totally agree with Gullit. The difference between our group and the rest is that Madrid can't allow themselves a single oversight. Neither can our opponents: City, Dortmund and Ajax. There's also another thing to keep in mind: the two teams that go through from our group won't come into the knock-out stages of the competition in the same condition as the other 14 that qualify. Let me explain. We'll have to be playing at our top level from the first minute and in all of the matches in the group stage. With the maximum intensity, concentration, delivery, pressure. We'll get to the quarter-finals with this effort in our legs and in our heads. The others will arrive fresher, without cards and suspensions, keeping controls on minutes played, making rotations... With many advantages that Real Madrid, Manchester City, Dortmund and Ajax won't have. We come into the quarter-finals with accumulated effort, probably with cards, with many minutes played at full throttle, and with physical and mental fatigue.
It's not going to be a walk in the park this group phase, is it?
Easy it won't be. But knowing my team, my players, I also have to say sincerely that preparing for matches of this intensity is easier for me and the team than doing it for others. I rest easy knowing that Real Madrid has developed an enormous competitive streak. And I don't have to say more to the team. They already know that they have to be at their best and give it all in the Champions League. That playing well, better or OK they have to move the matches forward. Winning from the first minute of the first game, against Manchester City at the Bernabéu.
Will Manchester City be the big team to beat?
Well I'm not so sure. Dortmund are double winners in Germany, they're a finely-tuned team and they're full of internationals, many from Germany and the two best Polish players. They've already built up a lot of experience in the Champions League, they have an impressive stadium and fans that will support them to the last. And with Ajax you never know, but they can cause you an upset. And as there's no margin for error... But yes, Manchester City are really powerful because of money, and world-class football players. City are a team made to win the Champions League, put together with this intention. The investment that goes in year after year has the goal of winning the European Cup. And it's going to be hard. Hard for Real Madrid, and hard for them because Madrid is Madrid.
Madrid have managed to sink Barça twice in the last six months. Is this the start of a new chapter?
It's not me who should say that. What's evident is that we've broken Barça's winning streak, that brought them one title after the next. Now the alternation has come back, and we'll see who wins this battle. Anyway, we have to be honest: we're speaking about Real Madrid and Barcelona, two very good teams, excellent teams. Any other team you could pick in the world, if they had to play in the Liga, wouldn't finish first or second. And I chose Real Madrid precisely because of that. Because it's more difficult to be here. If you go to another league it's easier to win. With any other direct rival that's not Barça, and in terms of the whole league, everything would be easier.
I'll also say that Barça are part of the reason why Madrid got to where they got last season; they set the bar really, really high. To be champions we had to go to a different dimension, and that's why the last Liga is such an honour. But the battle isn't over. The cycle of constant wins for Barcelona may have finished. But the cycle of high quality from both these teams hasn't. The struggle will go on. And football fans, not only in Spain but around the world, are going to enjoy the Madrid-Barça matches to come. Madrid-Barça is a blessing for football, for football fans. I don't have the numbers, but I'm sure that the recent Supercopa had a bigger global audience than many matches in the last Champions League.
In your dual role as coach and manager, can you find a solution to the case of Cristiano? If you believe there to be such a case.
Let me think a few minutes...
Are you ready?
Yes, but it's a topic I shouldn't and I can't speak about.
Why's that?
I'm not going to say anything about that.
Are you not answering because you prefer to speak about it to Cristiano first, face to face?
Excuse me, this interview seems interesting to me. I'm willing to speak about everything. I've answered all your questions in depth and honestly. But don't ask me about the thing with Cristiano. You have to uunderstand me. I ask you, please do not insist.
Finally, what does José Mourinho think of Casillas and Xavi winning the Prince of Asturias award?
It was some of the good news of the day. Let me use the opportunity to congratulate them both in the pages of AS. To Iker, our captain, the captain of Madrid and Spain and the international with the most appearances for Spain, I send a strong and heartfelt embrace, and I congratulate him. To Xavi, also my sincerest congratulations.
Interesting he wouldn't touch the case of Ronaldo
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...o-noncommital-about-sergio-ramos-rift?cc=5739
Jose Mourinho denies Sergio Ramos rift
Jose Mourinho denies Sergio Ramos rift
Liverpool couldn't afford him and nor could they afford the players he'd need. Ciddy are more of a concern. Hope he takes over from Fergie.
i would love to be balotelli for a day
wouldn't mind his money for a day - lash out on a Bentley maybe and sell it after a couple of weeks - pay the house off .....??? spend the rest on pies
wouldn't mind his money for a day - lash out on a Bentley maybe and sell it after a couple of weeks - pay the house off .....??? spend the rest on pies
Anderson? Is it really you?
Fixed
well, if he can make the squad........
Not sure where to post this really, but the questions it raises are more about Mourinho than anything so here goes.
From Marca (I lazily waited until they put it in English on the website so I didn't have to translate)
In an interview printed in the football supplement 'Extratime', published by Italian newspaper 'La Gazzetta dello Sport', Manuel Pellegrini discussed his vision of Real Madrid, the club he formerly managed.
"Real cannot be a team that chases the ball, even if they are winning. Not when they have players of that class, big names that can put on a show for the fans for 90 minutes", the Chilean coach claimed.
"The constructive part of the game far outweighs the destructive part. I don't like results-oriented coaches. The concepts of entertainment and creativity are vital for me", added the Málaga boss.
Pellegrini also defended his track record at Madrid and rued the injuries that plagued his squad during his season at the helm. "I would have liked to leave Madrid with the title under my belt and I think we wholly deserved to win it. I'd like to see how Madrid would cope now with Ronaldo injured for two and a half months, like we did, and Pepe out for six months. We still managed to get 96 points", he argued.
"My situation at Real Madrid came to a head because I defended players that I saw as fundamental. I couldn't let them undermine me on issues where I disagreed with them. Especially when it came to players leaving or coming in, like Cazorla", Pellegrini concluded.
From Marca (I lazily waited until they put it in English on the website so I didn't have to translate)
In an interview printed in the football supplement 'Extratime', published by Italian newspaper 'La Gazzetta dello Sport', Manuel Pellegrini discussed his vision of Real Madrid, the club he formerly managed.
"Real cannot be a team that chases the ball, even if they are winning. Not when they have players of that class, big names that can put on a show for the fans for 90 minutes", the Chilean coach claimed.
"The constructive part of the game far outweighs the destructive part. I don't like results-oriented coaches. The concepts of entertainment and creativity are vital for me", added the Málaga boss.
Pellegrini also defended his track record at Madrid and rued the injuries that plagued his squad during his season at the helm. "I would have liked to leave Madrid with the title under my belt and I think we wholly deserved to win it. I'd like to see how Madrid would cope now with Ronaldo injured for two and a half months, like we did, and Pepe out for six months. We still managed to get 96 points", he argued.
"My situation at Real Madrid came to a head because I defended players that I saw as fundamental. I couldn't let them undermine me on issues where I disagreed with them. Especially when it came to players leaving or coming in, like Cazorla", Pellegrini concluded.
ohh to be a fly on the wall during these post-match over a glass of wine or two type head coach soirees. Fairly revealing stuff from MP.
"I spend ninety minutes on the bench"
http://www.marca.com/2012/11/10/en/football/real_madrid/1352564750.html
What a man, our special (only?) one.
http://www.marca.com/2012/11/10/en/football/real_madrid/1352564750.html
What a man, our special (only?) one.What an a$$hole he is, hilarious as always. Fantastic quote!!!
That's classy.
As for Benzema's lack of minutes on the pitch, he is poor this year, so I'm not surprised. He is probably one of the most incosistent players in the world. Once he gets in too poor form, it takes months for him to "return". When on form though, he is an excellent player though.
As for Benzema's lack of minutes on the pitch, he is poor this year, so I'm not surprised. He is probably one of the most incosistent players in the world. Once he gets in too poor form, it takes months for him to "return". When on form though, he is an excellent player though.
Benzema poor?! You must have pretty high football standards, I think he has been great. Anyway, this isn't the thread for that.
Well, yes. He hasn't found half of his best form this year, it's quite obvious.