Mourinho’s Notebook – Jose's Watches, Stevie G's Sprigs & Zlatan Being Zlatan
Time Keeping With The Special One
Chelsea manager and namesake of this very column has won 21 trophies as a manager. For every single one he has removed his watch, never to wear it again, and put it away as a souvenir. All of the other gifts he gets, he says are for his wife and children. Mourinho famously threw his Premier League winners’ medal into the Stamford Bridge crowd back in 2006.
“I take my watch from my wrist and I don’t wear it again. A big collection? I have a big collection. I keep it. They’re in a safe box. Like people keep medals or shirts, I keep my watches. Another thing is if I don’t win, the watch becomes a normal watch, so I wear, I don’t wear, I wear, I don’t wear. But when I finish a season with a trophy, that season is represented with a watch. I have 21.”
Of course, Jose happens to conveniently be sponsored by Hublot, the high quality Swiss watch craftsmen.
Zlatan Being Zlatan
When Zlatan needs a win to put Zlatan’s team back on top of the league in which Zlatan plays, Zlatan does not take half measures. Zlatan scores hat-tricks. And when Zlatan scores a hat-trick, Zlatan gets Zlatan’s teammates to sign Zlatan’s match ball. And then Zlatan makes sure that Zlatan’s match ball travels in as much luxury as Zlatan travels in, because Zlatan’s goals are the worth of Zlatan’s self, and Zlatan is everything to Zlatan.
Young Blunder
Manchester United winger Ashley Young has offered to pay to repair a football fan’s broken phone after he dropped it taking a picture with her. Worst of all for Young was that when the phone hit the ground, it flipped over and revealed a Sergio Aguero cover, with the fan having to admit that she was actually a City fan. She had a little laugh about it on twitter, and Ashley Young replied to apologise and pay for the damage. Nice bloke.
Worries and Troubles with LVG
Louis Van Gaal has claimed that the Manchester United job will be his final one in management. The 63 year old is in his first year of a three year deal. Understandably he wants to be able to spend more time with his family and he’s promised his wife that he’ll give it all up before too long.
But if he happens to avoid having to travel in his retirement too, well that’s just a happy bonus:
“I don’t want to travel. Everyone wants to touch my body in the airports; it is always beeping because I have an artificial hip.”
Stevie G’s Sprigs
Ah, Mr Gerrard, you never do disappoint, do you? 38 seconds, 6 touches, 4 passes, 1 tackle and a red card. This is why we all love The English Classic.
Geddit???
West Brom Doing It Right
West Bromwich Albion are planning a fantastic tribute to club legend Jeff Astle by kitting out against Leicester next month in a full replica of the 1968 FA Cup final.
Jeff Astle scored the winner in that ’68 final (a 1-0 win over Everton), and would score 174 goals for the club. However he suffered from a brain condition in later life called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which eventually claimed his life in 2002 at age 59. It’s a disease usually linked to ex-boxers that comes from repeated head knocks and in Astle’s case was attributed to so frequently heading the heavy footballs that they used in those days.
His family have done a lot to raise awareness for CTE suffers since then, and on the day of the throwback jerseys, they will officially launch the Astle Foundation. April 11, the day of the game, will be known as Astle Day among Premier Leaguers.
This is just the second time ever that the Premier League have allowed a kit change, the first being the similarly retro designs worn in 2008 between Manchester United and Manchester City on the 50th anniversary of the Munich Disaster.
Social Media Stunners
Shout out to Who Ate All The Pies for this one