Chapter 617 Volume 5 Red This Is an Important Game

Jose Mourinho (Jose_Mourinho).

Portuguese.

He used to be Robson's translator when he was coaching in Barcelona, ​​and also worked as a translator for Van Gaal. He officially started his coaching career with Portuguese domestic powerhouse Benfica, but resigned after nine games due to disagreements with the board. Then he coached the underdogs in Portugal, Leiria, and allowed the team to rush to fifth in the league in half a season, setting the best result in the club's history.

In January 2002, he became the head coach of Porto, another strong team in Portugal. He helped the team get out of the poor state in the first half of the season and finally won the third place in the league.

In 2003, Mourinho's first full season since coaching a team, he led the team to win three championships in the league, cup and UEFA Cup in one breath, becoming the triple crown.

In 2004, this was a brilliant year in Mourinho's coaching career. He not only helped the team defend the honor of the league championship, but also reached the final of the European Champions Cup, defeated Monaco with three goals, and led the team to Europe. pinnacle.

In the first season after joining Chelsea in 2005, he helped the team win the first league title in half a century.

In 2006 Chelsea defended the league title.

This is the honor Mourinho has won, but the glorious head coach is now in big trouble.

Chelsea's record in the league is not good, and the Champions League group stage also encountered the same problem as the Forest team-the first two games of the group stage had a draw and a loss, with no wins. It was also in the third game that the victory was ushered in and a "match point" was saved. Some media in England compared these two people together, saying that both are young, have character and are both talented. But now the representatives of the two young coaches here have encountered a serious challenge in their coaching career.

On the surface, it looks like this. The recent results of Nottingham Forest and Chelsea have been very unstable, with ups and downs. But if you look at the essence through the phenomenon, you will find that Dunn is much happier than Mourinho. Because the boss of the forest team trusts and supports Tang En. The problem of the Forest team is only a problem at the competitive level, and it is easy to solve. Chelsea's problem has nothing to do with sports, it has to do with Mourinho and Abramovich, two people with rebellious personalities. Once it has something to do with human personality, there is no solution to this problem.

Since September 18th, when Chelsea was tied 1:1 by underdog Rosenborg in the first game of the Champions League group stage at home, rumors about Mourinho's dismissal have not stopped. There is a lot of news outside, the relationship between Mourinho and Abramovich is not good, the relationship between Mourinho and Ballack and Shevchenko is not good, the relationship between Mourinho and Grant is not good...

There is a lot of negative news.

But Mourinho still led the team to the present, and was not really dismissed.

Twain didn't usually care much about Mourinho. Anyway, the media would always report his news, and he could get a general idea by just looking at it occasionally. Only this time, he couldn't care less if he wanted to. Because Mourinho came to the door.

On November 11, Singles' Day, Nottingham Forest played against Chelsea at home.

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As soon as the Champions League was over, some media began to hype the league match between Chelsea and Forest while hyping Forest's eight-goal massacre of Besiktas. If this game is just a confrontation between two teams, it is not the most eye-catching, because at the same time in this round, there is also a duel between Arsenal and Manchester United.

This schedule made the media feel that it was worth hyping.

Before Mourinho came to England from Portugal, when Tony Twain was still a "puritan" in the youth team of the Forest team, Arsenal's head coach Arsene Wenger and Manchester United's head coach Ferguson had always been together in the Premier League. Special scenery, the grievances and grievances between the two of them can be written into ten books, made into five movies, and then made into a video game product. Some media in China once described the relationship between these two people as "humiliating each other". people. This is really complicated, and it cannot be simply attributed to friends or enemies, and it is not "heroes cherish heroes". This inexplicable relationship is due to the fact that the two of them sit in different buttocks, and it is also caused by the personalities of the two.

These two people can be described as the most famous and classic enemies in world football.

Their war of words has accompanied the Premier League for almost ten years, and it was not until Mourinho's arrival in 2004 that the delicate relationship between the two was broken. After Mourinho came to Chelsea, he frequently launched psychological warfare offensives. Whether it was Wenger or Ferguson, he became the target of his attacks, so the battle between the two heroes became a three-nation confrontation.

The good times didn't last long. One year later, Nottingham Forest returned to the Premier League under the leadership of Tony Twain, and now the coaching bench of the Premier League is even better.

Tony Twain was a man with a very strange temper and character. His fangs and sharp teeth were not inferior to those of his predecessors. His appearance made the British tabloids very excited. Some people compare him to a "mad dog" - he bites anyone he sees, and he can't run away as long as he is an opponent.

The "Three Kingdoms" became the "Four Heavenly Kings". Some people prefer to divide these four people into two pairs. Ferguson and Wenger represent the past ten years of the Premier League, while Mourinho and Twain represent the next ten years of the Premier League, or even longer...England Readers and fans never have to worry that they will be lonely after Ferguson retires, and tabloid reporters don't have to worry about not having any off-field tidbits to report.

In the past, the confrontation between Wenger and Ferguson will definitely attract the most attention. But this time, their limelight was overshadowed by two young people.

There are so many reasons for this game to get a lot of attention.

"Madman vs. Madman".

"The Record That Embarrassed Mourinho - The Unbeaten Record Against Tony Twain".

"The Ultimate Showdown Between Mourinho and Tony Twain? "The last one is the headline used by a London media, but it is not just sensational. From many indications, this game is likely to be the last confrontation between Mourinho and Tony Twain in the Premier League.

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Mourinho's hair on the top of his head has been graying a lot recently, and his beard has grown unconsciously. His sharp eyes still made people feel awe-inspiring, and he raised his face and pursed his lips. The expression on his face was like a Greek marble sculpture, with sharp edges and corners.

But this instead gives people a feeling of "the hero is struggling at the end of his life".

The man who entered Stamford Bridge with the honor and aura of "European Champions Cup champion coach" is currently in an unprecedented crisis. The locker room of the team has been divided. A group of people with him as the core and a group of people with Abramovich as the core have divided Chelsea into two halves. In the past, he always had a headache on how to deal with opponents on the court, but now he must have a headache on how to win the tug-of-war with the club president-even if it is only staged.

London in early November has begun to have frequent hazy drizzle. The nickname "Foggy City" was born because of the exhaust gas emitted by the factory chimneys in London in the early days of the industrial revolution. Now London has long been without forest chimneys and exhaust gas, but at this time London is still " "Fog City"—rainy and foggy.

The Stamford Bridge stadium is empty, it is not a match day, there is no one else here except some tourists and staff.

At this time, there was a black spot on the blue stands. He was the only one in the stadium at this time.

Jose Mourinho sat alone in the center of the "Matthew Harding" stand at Stamford Bridge. This is the North Stand of Stamford Bridge, which is now the home team fans stand. Opposite him is the famous South Stand, once the "Sid" Stand, a favorite place for die-hard Blues fans.

Wearing his famous "Armani" trench coat, the Portuguese sat motionless in the stands in the drizzling rain. He crossed his hands and rested his chin, like a statue of "The Thinker".

He has been sitting here for ten minutes.

An hour earlier, he had held a private meeting with the club's owner Abramovich. No one knew about it, and he had no intention of telling anyone.

Abramovich's face is very ugly, obviously because of the team's poor record recently. Generally speaking, when a team's performance is not good, it needs to find the first responsible person, which must be the head coach. No matter how brilliant the head coach has achieved before, honor can only represent the past-this is an unbreakable truth in professional football.

Unfortunately, Mourinho is now experiencing this brutal truth in football firsthand.

Abramovich was somewhat dissatisfied with his leadership of the team for four years but did not win the Champions League as promised. In the just-concluded fourth match of the Champions League group stage, Chelsea was still unable to break through Schalke's goal in the away game, and Abramovich's favorite Shevchenko even sat on the bench for 90 minutes. minute.

During the meeting, Abramovich asked Mourinho why he didn't consider sending Shevchenko to play when the team's offense couldn't start. The tone of Mourinho's answer was a bit harsh: "The Ukrainians felt muscle soreness during the warm-up before the game, Mr. Chairman." All fools know this is an excuse, and what makes Abramovich angry is that Mourinho regards him as It was a fool, but he suppressed his anger and asked about things in the league, especially an opponent who was about to face an embarrassment for Chelsea. When Chelsea swept England, the only team that didn't win was Nottingham Forest.

This is a record that makes all Chelsea people feel uncomfortable, and Mourinho is the same. He is an arrogant person, and he cannot accept the reality that he has not been able to defeat someone like Tang En for three years.

"I promise to win this game, Mr. Chairman," was the answer Abramovich liked to hear this time.

In fact, it doesn't matter if he doesn't guarantee it. Anyway, if he loses to Tang En again, his life will definitely not be easy.

But to be honest, this meeting has made Mourinho's recent bad mood even more gloomy, just like the weather in London now. He knows what kind of person his immediate boss is because he is also one of them. The terrible problem is that people with this personality cannot work together for too long, otherwise there will be many conflicts, big or small, which will accumulate and eventually become the beginning of collapse.

And he had already heard the sound of rubble falling from the foundation stone.

Crack, crack, crack...

Mourinho looked up at the stadium roof above, and the raindrops made dense sounds on it. Only then did he notice that the rain was getting heavier and heavier.

A person wearing a yellow raincoat appeared under the stands. He noticed that there was someone more in the originally empty stands. After staring for a while, he realized that it was the head coach of the team. Quickly waved and shouted: "Sir! Mr. Mourinho! Why are you here?"

Mourinho got up from his seat, walked to the railing, and said against the rain falling from the sky, "Ah, I suddenly wanted to take a walk, so I came here. Did I interrupt your work?"

The other party waved his hand: "No, not at all. I'm just here to check." Seeing that the rain had soaked Mourinho's hair and coat, he pointed to the sky, "Rain, sir."

Mourinho followed his hand and raised his head to the sky. The cold rain hit his face, but he didn't hide, just squinted his eyes.

"Thank you, the rain is not too heavy...Then I will take my leave. Goodbye..." He glanced at the other party's face covered under the raincoat, "...Mr. Scott Lawrence."

The opponent obviously didn't expect that an ordinary player's turf maintenance worker, the famous coach Mourinho, would be able to call his name, and he froze in place for a moment of excitement. By the time he reacted, Mourinho had long since left.

Scott Lawrence looked around the stadium stands, but he didn't see the black figure of Mourinho in any corner. The conversation died down, Stamford Bridge was quiet again, except for the rustling of rain, there was nothing.

Although this ordinary stadium turf maintenance worker can be regarded as a member of the entire club, he is the most ordinary and ordinary member. The work they do is the most important, yet no one mentions their names anywhere. He didn't expect Mourinho, a head coach whom he had never been in contact with before, to be able to accurately call his own name.

I remembered the appearance of Mourinho when I saw him down here just now—the whole person was almost wrapped in a black Armani trench coat, sitting alone on the huge stand, in the middle of the huge blue Black dots appear tiny.

Lawrence thought of the various rumors in the market recently.

The man's days at Stamford Bridge seem to be counting down? Abramovich is his boss, the one who pays him, but he is a Chelsea fan, if he must be chosen. He'd rather Abramovich go than this man.

But what can he do? He's just an ordinary turf maintenance worker. He can't influence the decision-making of the club. He also can't play to help the team win and let the coach get rid of the crisis of confidence.

I can only... wish you luck, Mr. Mourinho.

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When Mourinho led Chelsea to Nottingham the next day, the media flocked to surround him, and many issues of concern were thrown to him.

"Mr. Mourinho, may I ask if the news that you are about to leave get out of class is true?"

"I don't want to answer questions from the future, at least now that I'm the manager of this team."

"Mr. Mourinho, it is rumored that you have a deep conflict with Abramovich..."

"We cooperate happily and there is no conflict at all. Of course he is the chairman of the club and he has the right to express some opinions on his team."

"About Grant..."

"You have to ask him questions."

"Talk about the match against Forest, Mr. Mourinho. Will Shevchenko play? And you haven't beaten Tony Twain yet..."

Hearing this question, Mourinho stopped squeezing out. He stood down and looked at the reporter who asked the question. He had the impression that he was a sports reporter for a local newspaper in Nottingham.

"The Ukrainian may or may not play. As for me never winning against Tony Twain? Then everything will become history." He added, "Tomorrow night."

After he finished speaking, he stopped answering any questions, broke through the heavy siege of reporters, and entered the hotel where he was staying with the team.

A group of reporters were still not reconciled, they raised their cameras and took crazy shots of Mourinho's back.

Under the flashing lights, the back figure in the black Armani trench coat was the only focus. Whenever the flash is on, he is the most dazzling figure, but when the flash is off, he blends into the black background, making it difficult to distinguish.

In the end, the creator of the Chelsea miracle empire stepped into the darkness where the flashing lights could no longer shine.