Media against Mourinho: How the media have been vilifying Mourinho
Jose Mourinho is currently the manager of Manchester United and is one of the best managers in the world, managing Manchester United now for around 18 months. His side currently sit in 2nd place, 12 points behind leaders Manchester City, and last season won 3 trophies, winning the FA Community Shield, Carabao Cup, and UEFA Europa League.
However, Mourinho has never been shy of controversy and loves ruffling others feather. But, apart from his comments that headlines the media, his tactics and transfers also draw a lot of criticism from the media, even though similar managers have done similar thing without drawing any criticisms. Now let’s look at the examples that prove that the media is biased against Mourinho.
- Transfers
The Alexis Sanchez transfer to Manchester United this transfer window was arguably one of the biggest transfers to happen this window. The Chilean came as part of a swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and has drawn a lot of criticism from the British sports media, especially about his high wages. An example of this is a Daily Mail article written by former Arsenal defender Martin Keown, titled; “Alexis Sanchez has got to be the biggest mercenary in football…” This title of the article alone quite clearly depicts Keown’s stance on the transfer and, by claiming Sanchez is a mercenary and considers it unwise that Alexis Sanchez is heading to the red side of Manchester instead of the blue. Keown fails to account that Manchester United offer him a guaranteed starting role, Champions League football, and most importantly, the chance to play at the biggest football club in England. Keown has only accounted for the money when talking about this transfer and fails to account the other reasons, but also fails to give any credit whatsoever to Manchester United for the recruitment of this world class player. Furthermore, other articles and comments by comments have commented as Alexis Sanchez being at his peak and a player that Manchester United shouldn’t be signing. However, when Manchester City were linked to Alexis Sanchez and were very close to signing him back in August, no one in the media mentioned his age and attitude being an issue, but because the media loves Pep Guardiola, they completely disregard and ignore the flaws that Guardiola’s decision has. Because Mourinho is continuously vilified by the media, his decisions draw a lot of criticism, even though these decisions are fairly well thought out. In this situation, the media give no credit to Mourinho for the recruitment of Alexis Sanchez, a world class, Premier League-proven player, but all of a sudden, when Manchester City are interested in paying £60m for Riyad Mahrez, Guardiola is praised by the media as being ambitious and ruthless. Alexis Sanchez is undoubtedly the better player than Riyad Mahrez, but the media praise Guardiola because he plays good football, even though he’s already paid £40m for Leroy Sane and £43m for Bernardo Silva. No matter what Mourinho does, he’ll always draw criticism from the media. Even if he lands a world class player as part of a straight swap deal, Mourinho gets no sort of credit from the media and will never as the media love to play the narrative of loving Pep and hating Jose.
2. FA Bans
Jose Mourinho last season was given a one match ban because he confronted referee Mark Clattenburg about the decisions he made during the match. Weird enough, when Jurgen Klopp shouts in the face of the fourth official, Klopp gets no such punishment and walks away free. Furthermore, Mourinho was once fined around £8800 for making sarcastic comments about Mike Dean during a post match interview, yet when Pep Guardiola is seen sarcastically clapping referee Anthony Taylor, he gets so such punishment. The FA quite clearly in these situations continously love to paint a narrative around Mourinho. To them, Guardiola and Klopp’s can be pardoned because it was in the midst of the match and it was a fiery atmosphere, so it understandable to them to let Guardiola and Klopp go free. Yet, when Mourinho does almost the same thing, in a match as well, he gets fined because the FA quite clearly love playing the media’s narrative of Mourinho: the villain of football and always will be the villains of football. The bias against Mourinho is so evident that even when Mourinho just says, “this match will be difficult for the referee to manage”, but when Klopp talks about a penalty decision in a post match press conference, he escapes punishment. What makes the media love Guardiola and Klopp, & vilify Mourinho is that Guardiola plays ball-playing, fluid football, while Klopp gives bear hugs and is passionate on the touchline. Despite the fact that both managers did not win any trophies last season, they still draw plenty of praise, while Mourinho, who won 3 trophies last season, still draws a lot of criticism from the media.
3. Style of play
Jose Mourinho in his time in England has been known for the tendency to “park the bus” or play more defensive football when required, but still draws lots of criticism from the media for his style of play. It’s been well documented that Mourinho will do whatever he needs to do to win. Even when Mourinho loses, he will get criticised by the media even if he loses, but when Pep, Klopp, or Pochettino loses, they won’t draw any sort of criticism as they play the “right brand of football”. At the end of the day, the Premier League is about the team that comes in first and gets the most points, not the team that plays the best and most entertaining football. The winners of the Premier League is dependent on the amount of points that the team gets, not how good football the team plays. Football competitions does not measure the how one plays football, but the outcome.
Jose Mourinho has been one of the most successful managers in the history of the game and guarantees trophies & success, however, he will always get criticised, as long as he’s still in the game and enforcing defensive tactics. Without Mourinho, the media have no one to hate and vilify. The media need someone to portray as bad from the rest of the managers in order to twist people’s mind about this distorted reality that playing the best football always guarantees results.
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