Stamford Bridge was the most happening place this Sunday with Jose Mourinho, returning back to the ground from where he left after a mutual understanding, in other words shoved out of the job (that is what you call it when you declare you are not going to quit despite blaming everybody else but yourself for the negative results and then you leave the Club’s training centre at night after being told by the hierarchy not to return when the sun comes up).
After the loss to Leicester City who were managed by Claudio Ranieri, one of the many managers disrespected badly by the Portuguese during his managerial career, Jose’s second spell came to and end. Chelsea were 16th when finally the welcome sight of Mourinho leaving the club for good was experienced by the players and the staff.
A lot changed over the summer, with Manchester United hiring Mourinho to take the club back to its glory days when they played the exciting football the fans craved for (which is as confusing as the transfer amount United paid for Paul Pogba to be honest). On the other hand, Antonio Conte was appointed By Chelsea to get them back on track after Guus Hiddink did a decent job of bringing some respectability.
Sparks were almost guaranteed to fly during the clash and in the end, it did on the touchline as Jose Mourinho accused his counterpart of lacking class and trying to humiliate his opponent by riling up the crowd when the Chelsea players did the same thing to the United players on the pitch with their performance.
At the end of the game which finished 4-0, as Sky Italia puts it, Jose was spotted telling Conte, “You don’t wind up the crowd at 4-0. You do it at 1-0. It’s humiliating.” Conte was seen waving his arms frantically to get the more out of the home support which they duly obliged at that moment. When quizzed about the situation the Chelsea Manager responded by saying, I was a football player, so I know how to behave on the pitch. I have great respect for everyone… [M]y behaviour seemed normal. I didn’t make fun of anyone, as I always demand respect. There were United fans who kept singing, while ours were in silence after a great performance from my team. I wanted to call the crowd to applaud the players, which seems normal enough to me.”
It’s really hard to stand beside Mourinho on the fact that Conte has humiliated him. If one wants to assess the situation normally as over the past years, that’s exactly what we have witnessed the Portuguese doing at the touchline. Conte while attempting to get the noise up from his crowd waved his hands upwards a number of times but never left his technical area whereas scenes of Mourinho running like a player who has just scored a goal out of his technical area right on to the corner flag on some occasions.
The recent incident at Anfield comes to mind when Chelsea beat the title contenders by two goals. Also, if Conte felt that the home support had to be more rapturous he can justify himself from what Jose, two years ago, opined after his narrow 2-1 win over QPR, “Everyone knows how much I feel connected to this club and the fans. At this moment it’s difficult for us to play at home though, because playing here is like playing in an empty stadium… I think the man responsible for the lights was in the same mood as the crowd, because everybody was sleeping.” Well? He through his own comments kind of made the ground more justifiable for Conte and through his own actions his present remark can be termed as the latest inclusion to his personal hypocritical folklore.
However, there is another argument to the story and that is something which is also to be taken very seriously. For those who have studied a bit of psychology will be able to comprehend that a person who specializes in a particular action is the best judge of the subject, who can pick up the slightest of hints over the chances of the action happening or being repeated.
In Jose’s case, there can be no better person in the world to detect if another person has behaved in a classless manner trying to humiliate another one, other than the Portuguese himself who has been doing it since the very start of his career and specialises in it.
When analysed from that angle one can be pretty sure about the fact that Conte did manage to rub it in, even if the evidences of his intent of doing so are inconclusive. There was also a similar hint of taking a dig at his counterpart when Conte mentioned the phrase of ‘Being a former player’ in his reply. There is thus a shortage of sympathisers trying to take the corner of the former Chelsea manager for the actions of the current Chelsea manager.
In the end, it can be said that the Portuguese who like America’s very own Donald Trump likes to fiddle in the ‘post –truth era’ has created yet another conundrum for himself and the others. The bottom line to the argument looking like, ’Jose Mourinho being the classless manager who loves to humiliate others is perhaps right in identifying Conte’s classless and insulting act of trying to rile up the crowd at 4-0, which inflicts nothing other than humiliation to the United manager but being the repeat offender of the same action over the years, his accusations and complaints now seem hypocritical or more appropriately ‘Karma’.
Remember the time
When I eat you up
Yeah I was a lie
That you can’t give up.
If I was to cheat
Oh no, would you see right through me?
If I sing a sad sad sad sad song
Would you give it to me?
Would you?
So how you like me now?
– The Heavy
