Manchester United and Chelsea Spat
Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson Play Psychological Mind Games
Increasingly controversial comments from both managers raise the pressure on both teams as they contest three competitions over the final few weeks of the season.
The managers of both Manchester United and Chelsea have turned the psychological mind games into an art form. Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho both love nothing better than to increase the pressure on opposing players, teams, referees and the authorities with calculated controversial statements in their regular press conferences.
Sir Alex Ferguson fights for Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson has been doing it throughout his time at Old Trafford. He instilled ‘the world’s against us’ attitude into his players who would have moved mountains in their desire to do everything for him and the club. This put mounting pressure on referees both before and during games. Who can forget the photographs of Roy Keane and other the United players surrounding referee Andy D’Arso in angry protest after awarding a penalty against United at Old Trafford? Then there was the sight of Sir Alex standing on the touch-line with stopwatch in hand to ensure the official’s time keeping was accurate. Before an important game a few well chosen comments to the press about the need for the referee to be sure that he is aware of the unfair tactics of the opposition would fuel the pressure in their favour.
Jose Mourinho Battles for Chelsea
Jose Mourinho has arrived in England and brought the same mentality to Chelsea. If Chelsea play poorly or suffer a rare defeat, Mourinho will inevitably call into question some of the decisions of the referee to deflect attention from him and the players. Even in victory he will find something to ‘rant’ about and now as the pressure mounts on Chelsea in attempting to win the Premiership for a third successive time he has set his sights on Manchester United with the psychological warfare.
‘The new football rules for Manchester United – no penalties can be given against them and we don’t get any penalties’ quote last weekend has fuelled the animosity between the two clubs. With every point vital, Manchester United to most neutral observers have benefited from some fortunate refereeing decisions in recent games. Their win over Sheffield United saw the visitors denied a penalty, in the draw with Middlesbrough, United could also have conceded a penalty but neither were given. To add fury to Mourinho’s anger, in their away draw at Newcastle when Chelsea failed to take advantage of United dropping two points the previous day, they were denied an obvious penalty for handball against Newcastle’s defender Stephen Carr.
Mourinho doesn’t restrict his comments to Manchester United. After the Champions League victory over Liverpool he complained that Chelsea should have had a penalty to add their solitary goal scored by Joe Cole.
Carrying on this ‘conspiracy’ theory he has now accused Manchester united’s star, Christiano Ronaldo of lying when he denied that penalties were not given against United. This has greatly annoyed Sir Alex who is wanting to authorities to punish Mourinho for his comments.
Sir Alex Ferguson has had free rein to make controversial comments in support of United for years and his side have definitely benefited from it. Mourinho has certainly raised the stakes where Chelsea are concerned but it’s not without it’s opposition, including the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich who is said to be concerned about Mourinho’s confrontational style which he feels does not reflect well on Chelsea’s public image.
The authorities have no power to curb such excesses – but what’s a fine to either manager or club? The media love it – it maintains interest in the game and over the next few weeks it’s guaranteed that there’ll be more acrimonious comments as the two clubs go head to head in three competitions.
