Jose Mourinho has never been a “squeaky clean” sort of manager.
He’s always been pretty good at the dark arts of his profession and most of the time he uses them to his advantage.
Against Paris St Germain, however, the Chelsea gaffer’s tricks backfired.
Mourinho laid the groundwork pre-match by effectively calling the French champions a bunch of cloggers.
His players built on that foundation by pouncing on the first opportunity they had to put pressure on the referee.
And as big Zlatan Ibrahimovic walked off the pitch, stunned at having been sent off for a standard 50/50 challenge with Oscar, Jose must have allowed himself a smirk of satisfaction.
Job done, he must have thought. Yet another success chalked up to gamesmanship.
But then his players, perhaps thinking the same thing, let him down and Chelsea crashed out of the Champions League.
It was hardly surprising that the TV pundits turned on him in the aftermath.
Jamie Carragher described the Chelsea players’ conduct in hounding the ref into sending
Ibrahimovic off as “disgraceful”. Graeme Souness, never a shrinking violet in his playing days, called it “pathetic”.
PSG, said Souness, were “a proper team” for standing up to it.
The inference was clear Chelsea are not a proper team.
Personally, I wouldn’t go that far. Clearly, they are a side packed with fantastic players.
What’s more, they play fantastically well together, secure in exactly what is expected of them at any given time.
Not a proper team? Not a chance. But there’s no doubt that Mourinho’s willingness to push the rules to their limit and the insistence his players do the same can be ugly.
He’s been doing it for years just ask Celtic.
When he was in charge at Porto, he led one of the dirtiest, most cynical teams I’ve ever seen to victory over the Hoops in the UEFA Cup Final.
Celtic were heartbroken but Mourinho didn’t care. He had won. THAT is all he cares about.
What happened at Stamford Bridge through the week is merely an extension of that trait.
It may not be pretty, and it may not be easy to respect Jose for it, but he isn’t going to change.
Like him or loathe him, Mourinho is a legend, even if his methods are less than legendary.
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