Last week, Jose Mourinho hit the headlines again for his red card against Manchester United in the Europa League and his eating habits in Istanbul. Her hotel room service of choice is said to be chicken soup, pizza and ice cream washed down with soda water. More on that later…
Meanwhile, there was plenty more on the menu when we sat down for a chat at his home from home on the shores of the Bosphorus.
He is hungry for success with Fenerbahce in Turkey, he is also hungry to return to the Premier League one day, but UEFA is difficult to digest now.
“This is a fight I can never win”
“The feeling is that I’m in trouble in Europe. I lost in the final in a way that I still don’t accept, and I feel it after that.”
Mourinho is of course referring to his Roma’s Europa League final against Sevilla in May 2023. Referee Anthony Taylor dismissed Roma’s penalty appeal and was shouted down by Mourinho in the players’ car park at the Puskas Arena. The incident was caught on camera and went viral and the manager was banned for four games.
Jose Mourinho has criticized referee Anthony Taylor for his performance in the 2023 Europa League final.
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Watch the Jose Mourinho and Anthony Taylor incident
“I feel it’s unfair in the sense that in football when you have to be punished you are punished and after you are punished it’s a clean sheet. It was supposed to start from scratch, but it didn’t. We got busted. From the Champions League (this season) by Lille with a VAR penalty in the 94th minute that was only seen by VAR.”
Then, of course, there was Thursday night.
“I was just screaming like everyone else on the bench and in the stadium. “It’s a penalty, it’s a penalty.” no offense and I get a red card.”
“I know it’s a battle I can never win,” he says.
“I want to be treated honestly”
Mourinho feels he has not been treated fairly
I ask if Jose feels he deserves better treatment given his huge achievements in European competitions.
“No, no,” he insists, “I deserve to be (treated) like everyone else.”
“On the field, it doesn’t matter if you are Lionel Messi or if you are playing your first game. The rules are the same for Messi and the young kid. And it’s the same for coaches. It doesn’t matter if you’re Carlo Ancelotti. or a young coach just starting Ancelotti should behave as a youngster should behave.
Mourinho is the only manager to have won all three active UEFA competitions
“That’s what I want for myself, and that’s what I’m not getting.
“I don’t want special treatment, I want honest treatment. Only that. So if I do something wrong, punish and pay, but if I do nothing wrong, leave me alone, but it gets difficult.
“After that final in Budapest, it becomes difficult.”
Would Jose really return for the relegation battle in the Premier League?
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Mourinho has joked that he will return to the team at the bottom of the Premier League table after Fenerbahce’s game against Manchester United.
After his Europa League draw with Manchester United and his red card, Mourinho told reporters that his next job would be at an English club that does not participate in European football.
But there is bad news for the fans of the last half of the EPL. Jose will never take the fall.
“I made a joke,” he says. “I will never go to a team struggling with relegation. I will never go.”
He details why he said he would.
“I’m upset, and I’m not at the stage of my career to be upset. I am in the period of my career to be happy all the time, and at the moment, playing in European tournaments, I am upset with all my heart. time
“But I’m not going to fight the recession. It is too difficult. Honestly, I think that has to be the hardest. It’s harder than playing for titles. It must be very difficult emotionally because it is something that changes a life.
“I think it’s the brave guys who do it.”
When I tell him it will be a blow to many supporters, the conversation takes a turn. Tongue in cheek, he says, why not south-east London?
“Millwall. Millwall,” he jokes. “I just crossed the bridge from my house.
“I need to return to the Premier League, but not yet”
Mourinho has won three Premier League titles
When you spend time with Jose Mourinho, you realize that his natural footballing home is the Premier League. When I put this on him, he doesn’t object.
“I’ve had three clubs in England, so I’ve coached in England for four different periods and I love it. And socially, I’ve been lucky enough to live in so many cities, but my family lives there; London.
“London is home, so one day I have to go back before nobody wants me. But one day I would like to go back.
“But don’t get me wrong and let’s make it very clear that in the next two years, this season and next season, nobody is going to take me away from Fenerbahce.”
“I live in Europe but I go to Asia every day”
Jose is clearly enjoying his time in Istanbul. She looks relaxed, tanned and trim.
“Istanbul is amazing,” he smiles. “I live in Europe and every day I go to Asia for training, then I go back to Europe to sleep.”
I ask him to explain this unique situation. He is happy.
“Bridges connect the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side, I live in Europe, my club is in Asia.
“My stadium is in Asia. I’m leaving here and heading to the other side. It’s not dramatic. It’s less time than I used to do from London to Cobham (Chelsea Stadium) and if one day I’m unlucky and something happens on the wrong bridge, I get the boat to the other side, it’s eight minutes and then another 10 minutes. to the stadium.”
He says he goes every day.
He doesn’t.
Because then he tells me that he often sleeps in the stadium. Such, however, is his passion for work.
“I stay there many times, it’s normal,” he says.
“I can’t lose that desire and hunger because if you lose, you better stop. I always remember going to Old Trafford with Real Madrid for a big Champions League game and Sir Alex invited me into his office before the game. We were looking. We were quite calm, but we were not, and I said to him: And he told me no. It doesn’t change.”
Now Jose knows that Sir Alex was right.
“It doesn’t change, the feelings are the same, and I think that’s a good thing.”
And that’s why last week’s draw with Manchester United felt so good for Mourinho.
“The game against United was pleasant for me,” says Mourinho. “Seeing what every coach wants to see, which means seeing what you’ve prepared. Sometimes you prepare things but you don’t see them, but (Thursday) the players played at their maximum level because there is a difference between them. two leagues and two teams.
“For me to stand in the dressing room and see everyone sad about the result was a fantastic feeling because normally if you get a point against Manchester United you’re happy.
“We may have surprised some people because sometimes people put tags without seeing. I scored 105 goals in one season with Real Madrid and we were considered a defensive and counter-attacking team.”
Jose has ruled out the England job for now
Thomas Tuchel begins his reign as the head coach of the England national team on January 1
Has there been a connection with the England job? I ask.
“Zero,” he says.
Is it a job he would be interested in?
“Not today,” he insists.
“I still have too much energy to play one match a month, I need to play games.”
But maybe in the future?
“Yes, I think that’s something I would like to do, to have the experience of playing in the World Cup, the Euros. Represent the country, my country or a country I feel connected to. One day I feel it will come, but not now.’
Soup, pizza and sodas
And so to those headlines about his lifestyle in Istanbul. Suggests that while at his hotel, he orders room service, which consists of very basic fare. Everything seems true. Well, almost.
“If you believe what you read, Jose, you live like a hermit,” I point out. “Never leave your room and eat soup.”
“Thankfully they told the truth.” he says with a big smile.
“Because they could lie. So when they say I drink soda, they’ve forgotten that it’s sometimes coke. When they say chicken soup is fair, I have it many, many times.”
After our conversation, Jose and I ate. Not in his room. We went out.
I had fish.
He had the usual.
