Tuesday night’s loss to Sevilla clearly brought a lot of memories back for Jose Mourinho but he probably shouldn’t have said anything. It seems though his comments this week aren’t the only controversial ones, what he said in 2004 has come back to bite him.
When Manchester United conceded a late second to Sevilla on Tuesday it might have seemed like such deja vu for Jose Mourinho that it’s a wonder he didn’t go sprinting down the touchline to celebrate.
There were certainly some similarities in the loss to when the United manager had made his first appearance at Old Trafford when his Porto side scored a late goal against Sir Alex Ferguson’s United in the same competition, knocking the Red Devils out on the way to winning it himself.
On that fateful night Fergie had been incensed that Paul Scholes had a perfectly good goal ruled out that would have taken United through. Then Mourinho went charging down the touchline infamously when Porto scored their goal.
Sir Alex failed to shake his opposite number’s hand after the match and Mourinho’s comments, as per the Times today, from 14 years ago have an eerie feel to them:
“You would be really sad if your team gets as clearly dominated as that by an opponent who has been built on maybe ten per cent of the budget.“
That reminds me of someone…
And United fans were no doubt annoyed with what the plucky upstart said back then but they were probably be even more annoyed when Mourinho started talking about his own previous achievements at Old Trafford after the loss:
“It’s not the end of the world. I sit in this chair twice in the Champions League and I knock out Man Utd at home.
“I sit in this chair with Porto – Man Utd out – I sit in this chair with Real Madrid – Man Utd out… So I don’t think it’s something new for the club. Of course, being Manchester United manager and losing a Champions League tie at home is a delusion obviously.”
Of course Mourinho was trying to point out that United don’t always win in the Champions League, after all David Moyes is the last man to win a knockout game for the club, but it wasn’t the best time to say that.
SportBible.com
