A cautionary tale for Jose Mourinho

Posted Thursday, February 02, 2012 by Supersport.com

It may very well prove to be the case that some of the Madrid players actually knew all along, better than Mourinho, how best to confront Barca, but that's a different argument.

What can still threaten Madrid, despite all the previous points, is if the Portuguese coach is determined to seek out, identify and punish those whom he believes have been leaking information to two newspapers: El Pais, where the excellent Diego Torres has had a keen and interesting source from almost the first week of the "Special" reign, and Marca, where the catty exchanges between Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Mourinho were reported on the front page after the second leg of the King's Cup quarterfinal against Barcelona.

Whether the source proves to be a coach, a medic, a physio, a player, a club executive or Alfredo di Stefano, the very process of seeking out dissenters and traitors is corrosive and dangerous by nature. Unity is stripped away, team spirit is crippled and it is next to impossible to keep the competitive edge at its sharpest. The media will be dragged into such a storm; a magnifying glass will be applied to every gesture, raised eyebrow, failure to celebrate winning a corner adequately -- you can imagine.

One of Mourinho's great strengths thus far has been man management. He won extra admiration from me when he took the flurry of criticism from his senior players after the defeat at Levante and the draw in Santander earlier this season and assimilated the information rather than lashing out in anger.

The result? A stream of power performances, a flood of goals and a significant lead at the top of La Liga because Barcelona couldn't keep pace.

Right now, with Barca about to try to paper over the cracks against Valencia in the Copa del Rey, with the sublime story of third-division Mirandes having made it to the other semifinal, and with the Champions League knockout stage just about sneaking into view again, there is a danger that winning and losing the league is seen as something that only happens from April onward.

Not so. If Mourinho plays his hand poorly right now and decides to seek out and punish dissenters, J. Edgar Hoover-style, chaos could result. If the Portuguese is shrewd and serves his revenge dish cold -- that is, after the season is over -- then Madrid is not only well-placed, it should be uncatchable.

Don't miss a minute, as this is a human drama as well as sporting theater.

Renewable energy -- how appropriate

I guess one of the principal reasons for sponsorship is not just that established brands compete for our attention, but that if a company chooses its medium well, it can tell a story that introduces us to something we knew nothing about in the first place.

As such, I'm going to break one of the normal rules for a columnist and admit ignorance. I had never heard of the Chinese company JinkoSolar before it announced Tuesday that it is the new shirt sponsor of Valencia CF. Call me a dolt if you must.

However, there are two things I love about this deal. Number one: What could possibly be better for this phoenix-like club than a sponsor that deals in "renewable energy" at a time when Valencia is fighting its way back from the brink of financial insolvency with a formidable debt-reduction plan, an audacious sales policy, and the announcement that it is restarting construction of the new Mestalla?

Renewable energy? This is a full-scale resurrection.

And that's point two. I'm sure that when Valencia recently sat down with the banks, the local council that bailed the club out of trouble and the constructors who must work on good faith to kick-start the new Mestalla building project that this Chinese sponsorship deal must, at least, have been in the pipeline.

What this represents is one more piece of good news, on top of Valencia's consistent debt reduction, its overachieving in La Liga and its European revenue that will allow all its creditors -- all those they need to stand close to them in these recession-plagued times -- to garner a little bit more confidence.

And I write not as a Valencia fan or shareholder but as an independent, whose love for Spanish football across the board means I feel it is time for all good men (women and children) to come to the aid of the party.

Valencia and Levante's debt repayment and football performance are nothing short of miraculous. And let's not forget the wave of intelligence, hard work and optimism at Real Betis, plus the new stadium and rising league position at Athletic. Taken together, it can serve as something more than a motif for unilateral rebirth; I hope it acts as a template for all other right-minded clubs across the top divisions of this country.

I "heart" Copa

Finally, a little love letter, straight from the heart, to the Copa del Rey. Anyone who was raised in the UK would understand the sway of the FA Cup in England. And as an Aberdonian, how could I forget that it was winning Scotland's FA Cup that gave my city's club the gateway to its greatest glory -- defeating both Bayern Munich and then the mighty Real Madrid in the final of the Cup Winners' Cup?

In Spain, it has been traditional to view the domestic cup with a bit of an upturned nose. Real Madrid, in particular, thought for many years that to try "too hard" in the Copa del Rey was a little blue-collar, only for the hoi polloi.

But since moving to Spain a decade ago, I have been at some absolutely earth-shatteringly good cup ties. I was a spectator at the 1996 final between Barca and Betis, and I will not forget the drama, noise and wonderful football for as long as I live.

So to see little Mirandes playing with such enormous panache, aggression and confidence to reach the semifinal versus Athletic Bilbao means that the final is absolutely guaranteed a barnstorming story.

Both Barcelona and Valencia, in the other half of the draw, are serial winners. If one of them triumphs, fine. But romance for the rest of the world it ain't.

Should Mirandes get to the Copa final despite its first-leg defeat then, for its community, the world will either stop spinning or seem like it's spinning at treble speed. Life will change forever. Should it be Athletic (without a win in this tournament for nearly 30 years), then a grand old dame of the Spanish stage will get a change to rouge up and avenge the bitter defeat she suffered in 2009. That's when, on the pitch in Valencia's Mestalla, the Basque players wept with the sheer effort of having given their best and come up second to a mighty Barca side that was en route to its treble trophy win in Guardiola's first season.

Right now I'm sending imaginary hearts to the Copa, to Athletic and to Mirandes. Football poetry.

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