Football managers each have their own individual style, it’s no coincidence that the game’s most successful can be extremely blunt characters when the occasion requires it. Quite who Martin Keown thinks José Mourinho is, is beyond me. Is the serial winner supposed to stand in front of the press, cap in hand and reel out the same old nonsense about ‘unlucky on the night’ and ‘onwards and upwards’?
There’s also the fact we live in the digital age, and the Portuguese knows precisely how to ensure his boys well and truly get the message. Regular readers will be very familiar with my intolerance towards losing. There are no excuses in this world worth raking through, only solutions are worth the time. I appreciate that to some fans that this will appear an unhinged approach, but trust me, all the best sides in the world are very much against losing.
Mourinho has already used up a year of his contract, and this season is the one whereby he needs to make his mark. Out with the dustbins went the endless, fatiguing talk of building. José, quite understandably needs his squad to follow his every word and get this side back where it has pretensions of being.
There remain boys at this club who do not have guaranteed futures, and that atmosphere is precisely what needs to pervade. This is a meritocracy where one earns one’s place, not a drop in centre for confused millionaires.
Perhaps Martin Keown misses the low standards of Mauricio Pochettino; I don’t.
