Not long ago, José Mourinho was deemed an irrelevant dinosaur whom the football world had moved past and stopped thinking about. Then Real Madrid suffered a self-inflicted crisis and brought back the one man toxic enough to thrive in their environment, the same way that radiation-eating fungi grow in Chernobyl. Now, for some reason, he has decided to take aim at Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in an attempt to deflect from impending disaster.
“For me, [La Liga] is a tough league because the
pressure is constant: you always have to win,” he told the media (via @iMiaSanMia).
“There are leagues where you don’t always have to win. The champions in France or Germany have the tranquility to say ‘we already know we’ll be champion’. Here, there’s pressure week after week. If you don’t win, it’s a bad result. This pressure plays an important role for teams that have to play in a league of this quality.”
Of course, Mourinho knows everything about not winning, given how often he gets fired for exactly that reason. In fact, you could say he is a specialist in it.
In the last several seasons, PSG and Bayern Munich have both shown their quality on both the domestic and international stages. If you put them in La Liga or the Premier League they would be battling for the top 2 spots. Mourinho, whose teams have not achieved anything similar in several years, has very little room to make the comments he has chosen.
The statement is reminiscent of what another Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti said, back in 2016:
“Bayern will win the Bundesliga without even taking their hands out their pockets,” Ancelotti told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I must confess that I cannot enjoy Bayern’s games.”
“There is simply too little real competition.”
via BeSoccer
Irony struck when Carlo was appointed as Pep Guardiola’s successor at FC Bayern soon after. He was sacked in his second year for disastrous performances, his team in 3rd place at the time of his dismissal. Carlo made the same assumptions as José, and reality struck him hard.
Meanwhile, Mourinho’s counterpart at FC Barcelona, Hansi Flick, makes no such claims or excuses regarding the quality of their league and his team’s performances therein. Being a former coach in the Bundesliga himself, he understands the pressure involved and does not try to downplay it for cheap talking points. Of course, Flick has an unfair advantage over Mourinho, given his footballing acumen has not deserted him after a decade of abject failure.
Fans should expect further such statements from Mourinho as the season continues. It will help deflect from whatever happens on the pitch, as Madrid march forth under his watch.
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