The Much Maligned Mourinho

Jose Mourinho's fractious relationship with the Italian media finally broke down at the weekend after he allegedly shoved a journalist. Is it now time for Mourinho to finally adapt to his surroundings or will it serve as the last straw in his Inter tenure?

When Jose Mourinho arrived in the peninsula last summer, journalists were tripping over each other to get a few words from the 'Special One'. His fluent Italian and the use of 'pirla', a Milanese word for fool, in his very first press conference left the media in awe.

But then pretty soon things started going wrong. The honeymoon period was over and the bickering and squabbling kicked off almost immediately. The first sign of a breakup was during the Pietro Lo Monaco incident.

The Catania president was of the belief that Jose "talked too much" after the Portuguese had said his side should have won by five goals. The media is not like a wife it is like the mistress, so they immediately sprang upon this opportunity to blame the tactician.

Things got positively worse from there as Mourinho sent his assistant, Giuseppe Baresi, to talk to the reporters after the Lecce game. Italians are very passionate, as I discussed last time and they took this as a personal snub.

They accused Jose of "lacking respect towards them". But he has always fought fire with fire and hit back at them claiming "they were petty" and disrespectful towards Baresi. The man had a point but within a month there was a clear dislike in the media for Mourinho.

Managerial Tactics

The media soon found a new area to target Mourinho and that were his tactics. Jose had tried using the 4-3-3 system which was successful at Chelsea, with Inter but the team had failed to adapt.

His summer signings of Mancini and particularly Quaresma, for whom Inter shelled out €18 million, were considered as failures. Furthermore, his tactical decisions were subjected to intense debate on all sports shows.

Jose's quickfire tongue made him more enemies than ever. He ended up insulting Ancelotti, Ranieri and Spalletti and thus lost respect even amongst his peers. The Italians were just not used to a frank man speaking straight from the gut.

Inter's failure in the Champions League gave the media all the necessary ammunition to launch another broadside on the manager. They claimed that Mourinho was no better than his predecessor, Roberto Mancini.

So despite Inter winning the championship with a ten point margin in his first season in charge Mourinho was branded as a failure in Italy. According to the press he was just another over-rated manager who had a massive ego.


The Media Blind-Eye

Despite the country-wide Mourinho bashing very little was said about his grooming of youngsters. Mario Balotelli and Davide Santon played brilliantly and the latter was highly impressive towards the end of the season.

How many Italian coaches would have left the responsibility to mark the world's best player in Cristiano Ronaldo to a 18 year old? Not many I am sure. But Mourinho did so and his move paid off as his countryman struggled to make his way past Santon in both the legs.

Mourinho's way of handling Balotelli has been equally commendable as the coach has made his stance clear on multiple occasions. There is no doubt that Mario is a prodigious talent but his personality leaves question marks over whether he would live up to his potential.

This year, the team has moved from being dependent on just a target man and adapted an overall flowing style of football. Inter have the best attack and the defence in the SerieA and credit for that goes as much to Mourinho as to the bunch of players at his disposal.

Mourinho's decision to play with just three defenders and five attackers in the closing stages of the game at Kyiv effectively saved Inter's CL campaign. However, not one Italian paper decided to pay tribute to his tactics and attitude.

But the same papers were quick to tear into Jose after Inter's no-show in the match against European champions Barcelona. Almost every media outlet suggested that Mourinho should quit Inter solely on the basis of the team's performance at Barca.

Here And Now

And then finally came the boiling point on Sunday when Jose insulted Andrea Ramazotti when he was hanging around the team bus. Ramazotti alleged that the Portuguese attacked him and everyone from the Italian Sports Journalist's Union to the league authorities joined hands to blast the manager.

Mourinho was declared guilty even before the trial had got underway. Mo clarified yesterday that the altercation was purely verbal and involved no physical contact.

Even Inter president Massimo Moratti was bemused by this latest incident and has said he will look into it. And thus begins Jose's sternest test in Italy.

Till Sunday Mourinho was safe in the knowledge that his club was behind him but now that may not be the case. Moratti obviously likes the 'Special One' and has leaped to his defence on numerous occasions but this time he has stayed away.

For Moratti too is Italian and knows he risks turning the whole country against his club, if that is not the case already. Inter will know who they face in the Champions League knockout stages on Friday.

And Europe is where Mourinho's destiny will lie. If JoMo is able to inspire Inter in Europe he can expect to be hailed by not only his own team but surely by the media as well. But shall he fail again, don't be surprised to see him booking the next flight out of Milan.