The Warm-Up: Mourinho bottle smash a lesson to 'spoilt kids'
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Updated 28/11/2018 at 09:19 GMT
Plus: Marouane Fellaini loses his mascot; Dusan Tadic is better than Southampton; and Sol's time to shine.
Jose Mourinho throws drinks to the ground
Image credit: Reuters
WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Jose: An example for the kids
In English they call it ‘spoilt’, ‘spoilt kids’. Our kids are more spoilt than we were by our parents. We are more mature, we are better prepared. For young people now, it’s a different life on a social level compared to ours. To the people who surround the players, who protect them too much, who give them – in my opinion – too much care, too many excuses. There’s always an excuse for everything.
Last night Jose Mourinho gave the perfect demonstration of the values he believes his players lack.
Bask in the maturity as he obliterates 10 bottles of isotonic drinks!
Marvel at the “no excuses” attitude of his pantomime overreaction to a Marcus Rashford miss!
And drink in the message to those “spoilt kids” in a post-match interview made entirely about himself and what he achieved at other clubs!
Truly, this was Mourinho at his most statesmanlike.
Now the Warm-Up isn’t one to moralise. Mourinho’s bottle-smashing antics were fantastic, and his paranoid self-absorption is darkly hilarious. No complaints here. But this is someone who values cojones above almost anything else; who wants men to be men; who demands his players put the team above themselves. It takes a galactic lack of self-awareness to deliver that message while doing this.
The Champ-yawns
So often does the Champions League group stage fail to reach a satisfying climax, it should really consider a visit to the Drip Doctors.
Once again things are reaching a premature conclusion – of the groups that played last night, seven of the eight qualifying places have been decided with a game to spare. A winner-takes-all Shakhtar-Lyon encounter is about all Matchday six has going for it right now.
Do you know what would help? Some sort of European Super League. Just a thought. Doubt the big clubs would go for it though. Too committed to their domestic leagues.
We digress. Sergio Aguero headed Manchester City through in a 2-2 draw at Lyon that failed to make headlines because, while entertaining, it didn’t feature a grown man soaking the first three rows with sticky energy drinks.
Real Madrid’s Santi Solari is roughly 8% less beleaguered after a 2-0 win at Roma, and hark at Dusan Tadic putting Ajax into the knockout rounds! Hard to believe he wanted to leave St Mary’s.
Sol Campbell: Born to do it
The Warm-Up wants few things in life more than for Sol Campbell to succeed at Macclesfield.
Campbell is, of course, magnificently eccentric. And he does himself no favours by describing himself as “one of the greatest minds in football”.
Equally, he’s got a point about constantly getting overlooked, and the under-representation of BAME managers is undeniable. Ex-England internationals with far fewer than Campbell’s 73 England caps often walk into jobs, even with significant baggage – just look at Fleetwood’s Joey Barton.
For what it’s worth, former boss Sven-Goran Eriksson reckons Campbell – like Craig David – was “born to do it”. Let’s hope so.
The Warm-Up wishes Campbell the best. But if doesn’t work out, there’s always that Instagram career to fall back on.
IN OTHER NEWS
Arjen Robben is still doing this.
HEROES AND ZEROES
Hero: David De Gea
Can we all just agree United will be relegated if De Gea leaves?
Zero: Marouane Fellaini
Yes, he scored a stoppage time winner. But is there any better illustration of United’s defensive woes than the Belgian losing his mascot?
RETRO CORNER
No shortage of options for Sol Campbell content. There’s the disallowed goals against Argentina and Potugal, the day he disappeared at half-time, and of course that never-ending slide. But let’s be positive – here’s that barnstorming run against Colombia at France ’98.
HAT TIP
You may have seen it, but the story of Ballybrack FC is absolutely nuts. It seems a (now-ex) member of their staff fabricated the death of one of their players to get a game called off. The player is alive and well. Read all about it.
COMING UP
PSG v Liverpool (20:00) should be an absolute belter and comes with a mind-melting set of permutations. Meanwhile Tottenham need a win against Inter at Wembley (20:00).
Should be fun.
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