Jose Mourinho offers life advice to Danny Downer journalist
March 13, 2015
Two days after getting knocked out of the Champions League by PSG, Jose Mourinho faced the press with an eagerness to defend both his players and himself from the heavy criticism they have been receiving. One journalist who was a little too negative for Mourinho’s liking unwittingly prompted the Portuguese to demonstrate his skills as a life coach.
“What are you so pessimist in life?” Mourinho asked him. “Is more difficult to succeed. You have to be optimistic. Maybe you are a guy with great potential and you don’t move on because you are so pessimist — be optimistic. Be optimistic! Believe in yourself! Be positive.”
This was only one small portion of a vintage Mourinho pressroom performance, though. He got warmed up by calling Manuel Pellegrini “Pellegrino” again. Then he hit his stride by asserting, “The people that was out of the Champions League last wednesday is the same people that is top of the Premier League since day one. Is the same people that won the Carling Cup. Is the same people that is going to win the Premier League. We are exactly the same people.”
Later, he fired some shots back at the pundits who have came after him in recent days. Namely, Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher — who said, “Jose Mourinho and this Chelsea team will always be respected, but they’ll never loved” — and Graeme Souness, who said Chelsea’s reaction to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s challenge on Oscar was “pathetic.” He even threw in a bit of a Cantona-esque wisdom.
“Jamie stopped to play a couple of years ago. In two years he forgot everything he did on the pitch. And Mr. Souness also forgot, but he stopped to play for quite a long time. And he also forget that a couple of years after he left Benfica, I coached Benfica. I know A LOT about him. I know so much about him. […] I prefer to laugh. I prefer to say that the envy is the biggest tribute that the shadows do to the man.”
Finally, he took one last jab at the people sitting before him. Or not sitting before him. “Nobody is doing like what some journalists do when they write bullshit, the next press conference they don’t come. My players don’t do that. They want to play.”
The whole world is Jose Mourinho’s shadow, paying tribute to him with envy.